Researchers from 34 institutions from around the world have completed the first DNA sequence for a tree, the black cottonwood or Populus trichocarpa (poplar). This poplar's rapid growth and relatively compact genome size (480 million nucleotide units, or 1/40th as…
Plant physiologist Cynthia Henson and colleagues at the ARS Cereal Crops Research Unit (Madison, Wisc.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6517-552) have designed three thermophilic barley enzymes, which perform exceptionally well at around 70°C. As a result, the enzymes can yield up to 30% more…
The first demonstration of a new high-temperature-superconducting cable was started last month in Columbus, Ohio. The new triax cable - said to provide three times more power-distribution capacity while using half of the superconducting material, compared to previous superconducting cable…
The need to maintain and increase safety is ever-present in the chemical process industries (CPI), but what exactly constitutes safety equipment? This roundup of products covers a broad range of equipment, from data buses to non-slip footwear, whose…
Once a year, a hundred or so upper-echelon managers of U.S. chemical-process companies go through a long-standing ritual: as they dress up for an annual award dinner sponsored by the American Section of the Soc. of Chemical Industry (SCI)…
Since their inception, data buses have been highly acclaimed in the chemical process industries (CPI) for their potential to achieve interoperability and substantial wire-savings - advantages that are particularly easy to envision for a theoretical case in which…
At the end of July, Renewable Capital Ltd. (London, U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-545) and Konarka Technologies, Inc. (Lowell, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-546) entered a licensing and joint-development agreement to scale up Konarka’s dye-sensitized solar-cell technology (CE, March 2004, p. 19). Renewable Capital has committed…
Universal Display Corp. (Ewing, N.J.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-547) has been awarded two new Small Business Innovation Research Phase I grants from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.) to enhance white OLED lighting technology. In the first grant, the company will…
Last month, DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-548) announced the successful completion of an industrial-scale test burn of its BioOil as a replacement for natural gas in the lime kiln of a pulp and paper mill. The testing…
Researchers from the Physics of Fluids and Biocolloids group at the University of Granada (Spain; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-549) are developing a system in which bitumen emulsifies at room temperature, which facilitates transport and allows cold application. Because the bitumen does not need…