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Environment, Health, Safety & Security

Chementator: A Process for Desulfurizing Natural Gas  

A process in which sulfur is extracted from natural gas in the field and converted to sulfur dioxide, which is then injected into the gas reservoir and reacts with hydrogen sulfide in situ to produce elemental sulfur, has been developed…

Chementator: A Cellulosic-Ethanol Demonstration Plant Enters Startup Phase    

Verenium Corp. (formerly Celunol; Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7372-537) is starting up a 1.4-million gal/yr demonstration-scale facility at Jennings, La., which will produce ethanol from regional feedstocks (including sugarcane bagasse and specially bred "energy cane") via proprietary cellulosic-ethanol technology. The technology was…

Chementator: Foundation for SIF Demonstrations    

This month, the newly released Foundation for Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF) was demonstrated at Shell Global Solutions (Amsterdam, Netherlands) — one of several demonstrations planned by the Fieldbus Foundation (FF; Austin, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7372-545). In Amsterdam, engineers constructed a DCS-controlled demo…

Environmental Manager: A Checklist for Safer Chemical Batch Reactions

A good understanding of the reaction chemistry is needed for a safe process design It is a fact that safety-related incidents do occur in the chemical process industries (CPI). These incidents have, in part, led to increased attention to reactive-chemical…

Chementator: An ammonia-based CO2-capture process moves several steps closer to commercialization  

Last month, the first pilot project that used chilled ammonia to capture carbon dioxide from the fluegas (FG) of a coal-fired power plant started operating at the 1,210-MW We Energies’ Pleasant Prairie power plant in Wisconsin. Alstom (Windsor, Conn.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7371-531)…

Chementator: Halogenated activated carbon reduces mercury emissions from a coal-fired plant  

In its first full-scale test on a coal-fired power plant, halogenated activated carbon (AC) made by ADA-ES, Inc. (Littleton, Colo.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7371-537) has reduced mercury emissions by more than 90%. The significance of the results is that the plant burns western…

Chementator: A platinum-free catalytic converter    

Nippon Steel Materials Co., Ltd. (NSM; Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7371-538) has developed a new catalyst for combustion engines that contains 70% less precious metals than conventional catalytic converters. The catalyst is expected to not only lead to lower costs, but also…

Chementator: Switchgrass to syngas  

Although theoretically promising 80% more energy than is required to grow and convert to cellulosic ethanol, switchgrass has proven to be a difficult fuel source to break down cost effectively. With $1 million from the U.S. Depts. of Agriculture (USDA)…

Chementator: Sugar-beet pulp may cut the cost of biodegradable plastic    

Sugar-beet processors in the U.S. generate approximately 40 million tons of fiber-rich sugar-beet pulp every year as a byproduct of sucrose extraction. Most of it is used as livestock feed or in pet food. Researchers with the U.S. Agricultural Research…

Chementator: CO2-capture demo…  

Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC; Bismarck, N.D.) has selected the CO2-capture technology of Powerspan Corp. (Portsmouth, N.H.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7371-546) for a commercial demonstration at BEPC’s Antelope Station coal-fired power plant, located near Beulah, North Dakota. Approximately 1 million ton/yr of CO2…