Yesterday, U.S. District Court judge Paul Friedman denied a legal motion by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov) that would have prevented environmental groups from challenging EPA's stay of proposed changes to the Maximum Achievable Control Technology…
Codexis, Inc. (Redwood City, Calif.; www.codexis.com) and Raizen Energia S.A. (Sao Paulo, Brazil; www.raizen.com) have signed a joint development agreement to develop an improved first-generation ethanol process with enhanced performance economics. Raizen is a joint venture between Shell and Cosan,…
Chemtex (Wilmington, N.C.; www.chemtex.com) has entered into a Term Sheet Agreement with Colombiana de Biocombustibles Celulósicos (ColBiocel) for the supply of a license and associated engineering and technical services for an eighty-five thousand metric ton per year (m.t./yr) cellulosic ethanol…
A project aimed at using geothermal heat to power an electricity-producing turbine with supercritical carbon dioxide has received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov). The project also incorporates an element of CO2…
A joint venture (JV) between Vadxx Energy LLC (Akron, Ohio; www.vadxx.com) and Greenstar Recycling (Houston; www.greenstarrecycling.com) plans to start up a facility in mid-2012 to convert recovered plastics to synthetic crude oil. When complete, the facility will produce 80,000 bbl/yr…
Properly sized ejector stations can save capital costs and reduce downtime Steam-assisted, gravity-drainage (SAGD) operations employ large tanks that vent flammable and sometimes toxic gases. Safety and environmental concerns often require engineers to design vapor-recovery units (VRUs) to collect these…
The ONESuit Shield Level B hazmat suit features an open-faced design and is made from a lightweight, robust and flexible fabric construction. It is also certified to the National Fire Protection Assn. (NFPA) 1994 Class 2 and NFPA 1992 standards…
This new automatic valve performs multiple functions in a piping system, including pressure relief, backpressure control, pump bypass and anti-siphon protection. The lug-mounted Series RVDT uses an adjustable, non-wetted spring to control backpressure in a piping system. The set point…
Almost by definition, chemical engineering is a “green” discipline today, as it so often involves efforts to optimize chemical processes in order to reduce the amount of energy and raw materials that are used and the amount of waste that…
The lowest KR values in rupture discs KR values are used to determine the frictional flow loss in rupture discs. While the perception is that all rupture discs have high KR values, this company’s FAS (Forward Acting Scored) and PRO+…