PS Recycling INEOS Styrolution America LLC (Aurora, Ill.; www.ineos-styrolution.com) and Agilyx ASA (Oslo, Norway; www.agilyx.com) are advancing the development of a previously announced 100-ton/d TruStyrenyx chemical-recycling facility in Channahon, Illinois. TruStyrenyx is a partnership between Agilyx and Technip Energies N.V.…
In synthesizing a new molecule that mimics the nickel-iron (NiFe) hydrogenase enzyme, a team of researchers from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (www.illinois.edu) may have uncovered a promising alternative to the platinum-based catalysts typically used in the electrolysis of water to…
The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M; Spain; www.uc3m.es) has patented a new system for capturing hyperspectral images — those capable of collecting information across a broad frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum (near-infrared, mid-infrared and terahertz). The system can…
The demand for vanillin vastly outstrips the natural resources of this flavoring agent. A chemical process is thus used to produce the required large quantities of vanillin from petroleum, which is far less expensive than obtaining the substance from fermented…
Chemists at Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; www.global.hokudai.ac.jp) and the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery have developed what is said to be the first high-performance catalyst specifically designed and optimized for solid-state, mechanochemical synthesis. The new approach was…
Last month, the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) awarded $3.2 million in funding for the Solar MEAD project, which aims to decarbonize cement production. This joint project is headed by Cemex, S.A.B. de C.V. (Cemex; Monterrey, Mexico;…
P-XYLENE FROM CO2 Last month, a Japanese consortium announced the successful production and purification of p-xylene produced from CO2 at pilot scale. The University of Toyama (www.u-toyama.ac.jp), Chiyoda Corp. (www.chiyodacorp.com) and HighChem Co., Ltd. (www.highchem.co.jp) have been collaborating on producing…
For the first time, a hydrocarbon-based membrane has passed the performance and durability testing standards set by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) for heavy-duty fuel-cell applications. Typically, membranes in fuel cells are made of perfluorinated materials…
Chemical recycling of waste polyolefins is difficult to achieve economically partly because of the stability of carbon-carbon bonds in the plastics. In a new approach, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, Wash.; www.pnnl.gov) and the Technical University of…
Current electrolyzers for producing hydrogen use purified water as feedstock, but in the future, this could exacerbate freshwater shortages in some areas. Seawater is highly abundant, but the ions it contains undergo electrode side reactions, and cause corrosion in proton-exchange…