BP Solar (Frederick; Md.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-547) has developed a new silicon growth process that is said to significantly increase the cell efficiency over traditional multicrystalline-based solar cells. Solar cells made with these so-called Mono2 wafers, together with other BP Solar advances…
Last month, Expander Energy Inc. (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-551) licensed the Carbo-V process from Choren Industries GmbH (Freiberg, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-552) for the production of synthesis gas derived from biomass. Carbo-V is a three-stage gasification process (CE, August, 2003, p. 16)…
Alfa Laval AB (Lund, Sweden; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-531) has developed a new reactor system, called Alfa Laval Plate Reactors (trademarked as ART), which combines the high-heat-transfer capabilities of plate heat exchangers with the efficient mixing and reaction control typical of microreactors into…
Last month, Clyvia Technology GmbH (Wegberg, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-548), a fully owned subsidiary of Clyvia Inc. (Las Vegas, Nev.), was granted a German patent for its proprietary fractional depolymerization process for converting waste material into heating oil and diesel fuel. The…
The Linz, Austria-based VAI Division of Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services (Erlangen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-535) is commercializing a smelt-reduction process for recycling metal oxide wastes. The ZEWA (zero waste) process, developed by a consortium of companies in a research project under…
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…
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…
It’s not a question of whether the world supply of fossil is going to run out; its just a question of when, says professor Colin Webb, head of the chemical engineering department at the University of Manchester (England),…
After more than ten years of planning, WMPI Pty, LLC (Gilberton, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-534) is in the final licensing negotiations with contractors for constructing the first major coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant in the U.S. The plant, to be located near Gilberton, will…
Immersion heaters are used in a wide variety of applications in the chemical process industries (CPI). Knowing which heater to specify for a particular application and how to maintain it can make a manufacturing process more cost-efficient. This…