Valencent Products, Inc. (El Paso, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-544) and Global Green Solutions, Inc. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-545) are in the final stages of commercializing their patented Vertigro process, which includes the growing and harvesting of algae, and extraction of oil from…
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM; Decatur, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-547), Bayer CropScience AG (BCS; Leverkusen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-548) and Daimler AG (Stuttgart, Germany) have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the potential for a biodiesel industry based on Jatropha curcas L., a…
Technical innovations in light emitting diodes (LEDs) and photovoltaics have consistently reflected the similarities between the two technologies. In fact, research groups at many universities, such as the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.; www.umich.edu) and the University of Southern…
In a ceremonious sense, the marking of a new year thankfully lets us put certain things to rest and look ahead to a fresh start. At the same time, a majority of the previous year’s challenges are still at hand…
Among the many types of pollution-abatement systems that are in use today, wet fluegas desulfurization (FGD) systems — also known as wet scrubbers — are notoriously capital- and maintenance-intensive. These systems are widely used by electric power plants and chemical…
Last month, the European Parliament (Brussels, Belgium) approved a new air-quality directive, which sets, for the first time, binding standards for fine particles. The directive on air quality is one measure outlined in the 2005 Thematic Strategy on air pollution…
Gulf Ethanol Corp. (Houston, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-541) recently acquired an exclusive license to the vortex-implosion-disintegrator technology developed by Meridian BioRefining (Dallas, Tex.). This high-velocity, high-pressure process can turn biomass into an easily processable cellulose powder in 5 – 10 s. The…
Animal and vegetable oils and fats are a key renewable feedstock for making detergents, soaps, lubricants, paints, coatings, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, as well as additives for plastics, rubber and textiles. However, a consequence of the current EU renewable-energy policy is…
A plastic membrane that allows CO2 and other small molecules to move through its pores while largely preventing the movement of larger molecules like CH4, has been developed by a team of researchers from CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering and…
NRG Energy, Inc. (Princeton, N.J.) and Powerspan Corp. (Portsmouth, N.H.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6902-541) plan to demonstrate, at commercial scale, Powerspan’s ECO2 technology for capturing CO2 from conventional coal-fired power plants. To date, CO2 -capture demonstrations on coal plants have been conducted at…