Processing & Handling
A simpler process to make PX from LCO
Anew process to make BTX (benzene, toluene and xylenes) from light cycle oil (LCO), an oversupplied product of petroleum refineries that can supplement the dwindling supply of BTX precursors, is being developed by JX Nippon Oil & Energy (JX Energy;…
High-pressure CO2 without an external cooling bath
The SFT-10 Liquid Carbon Dioxide pump features advanced thermoelectric technology that allows the generation of high pressure without the need for an external cooling bath. The SFT-10 can pressurize carbon dioxide up to 10,000 psi at flowrates from 0.01 to…
September Chementator Briefs
Phosgenation scaleup At the end of July, Bayer MaterialScience AG (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayerbms.com) successfully tested its new gas-phase phosgenation technology at a new plant being commissioned for making toluene diisocyanate (TDI) — a raw material for making polyurethane —…
Calculate Liquid Volumes in Tanks with Dished Heads
This article presents equations that allow the user to calculate liquid volume as a function of liquid depth, in both vertically and horizontally oriented tanks with dished heads. The equations accommodate all tank heads that can be described by two…
Microbe-based process for GBL nears commercialization
Metabolix Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.metabolix.com) has successfully demonstrated and completed research and development for scaleup on a fermentation process that produces gamma -butyrolactone (GBL) from genetically engineered bacteria. The process is built upon the company’s technology for engineering metabolic pathways…
A promising method for producing conductive graphene sheets
Since the isolation of graphene by the “Scotch tape” method, many researchers have tried to synthesize solution-dispersible graphene. The challenge has been to develop a high-yield method that can exfoliate graphite efficiently into solution-dispersible graphene sheets without collateral damage to…
Solvent extraction method shows promise for recovering bitumen from tar sands
Today only a few percent of Canada’s oil sands resource is accessible by traditional surface mining, so the rest has to be recovered in situ, mostly by steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). In this process, steam is injected into a horizontal…
‘Green’ surfactants from yeast
A new yeast strain that could one day substitute for petroleum as a source of surfactants for detergents, soaps and cosmetics has been identified by researchers at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (Peoria, Ill.;…
BASF to increase production capacity for copper and copper-chrome catalysts
BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) announced this week that its catalyst division will begin a new round of capital investment projects to increase production capacity for copper and copper-chrome catalysts. These investments are aimed at improving catalyst manufacturing efficiency to meet…
Fuel-cell anode
A new anode material with nanostructured interfaces between barium oxide and nickel prevents deactivation by coking in solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) using carbon-containing fuels. The material offers a path to low-cost, low-emission SOFCs that can convert gasified carbon fuels to…