It’s an old saw, but I’ve long held that process development is very much a team effort. Developing safe, robust and scaleable chemical processes calls for close collaboration between synthesis chemists, process development engineers and pilot plant personnel.…
Continuously measure chlorine in water The Model TCL (photo, upper left) is a complete system for the measurement of total chlorine in water. Comprised of a sample conditioning system, an analyzer and a sensor, this system provides continuous measurement and…
First commercial results for a new reforming catalyst (R-98) of UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-545) were reported last month. Hunt Refining Co. (Tuscolaloosa, Ala.) has improved reformate yield from hydrotreated coker naphtha by about 2 vol.% since 2005, when…
Although citrus peels are rich in pectin, cellulose and hemicellusic polysaccharides, such waste products are currently marketed as low-value cattle feed, despite its relatively high processing cost, according to the ARS Citrus and Subtropical Products Laboratory (Winter Haven, Fla.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-544).…
Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, Mo.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-550) has commercialized an air- and water-stable palladium catalyst for performing intermolecular cross-coupling reactions, aminations and intermolecular Heck transformations. The catalyst, developed by Professor Michael Organ at York University (Toronto, Canada), is based on a Pd-NHC…
Researchers at Penn State University’s (University Park, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-551) Energy Institute are developing a jet fuel that is composed of at least 50% bituminous coal. The fuel, provisionally designated JP900, is comparable to Jet A or military JP 8, and…
BroadWare Technologies, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-548) and Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, Ala.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-549) have created an integrated solution that feeds high-quality video from remote locations to a central command center to speed decisionmaking and response time when a security event…
Toyo Engineering Corp. (TEC; Tokyo; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-536) has developed a new, cryogenic process for extracting natural-gas liquids (NGLs; ethane, propane, butane and other hydrocarbons) from liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Coreflux-LNG process boasts an ethane recovery efficiency of around 98%, compared…
Mechanically driven diaphragm pumps (MDDPs) are widely used for metering applications in the chemical process industries. But because the pressure difference between the drive and the delivery side gives rise to tensile loads in the flexing zone of the diaphragm,…
Over the next four years, EnvoSmart Technologies B.V. (Roosendaal, Netherlands; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-533) plans to install 31 ThermoFuel systems throughout Europe for converting plastic waste into low-sulfur diesel fuel. The first six systems are to be located near Berlin, Germany, where they…