Processing & Handling
Coal-to-plastics
Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd. and Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (SNCG; both China) have awarded a contract in excess of €100 million to Lurgi AG (Frankfurt, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6891-535) as part of two projects (€1 billion per project) for…
A new thermoplastic
GE Plastics (Pittsfield, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6891-543) has launched Extem thermoplastic polyimide (TPI) resins, a new family of amorphous polymers. The new resin is said to overcome the drawbacks of semicrystalline materials, imidized thermosets and competitive amorphous thermoplastics. Among Extem resin’s properties…
‘Step-out’ technology makes SM with less energy and greenhouse-gas emission
Exelus, Inc. (see also story on p. 11) has demonstrated a process that makes styrene monomer (SM) by the side-chain alkylation of toluene with methanol — an energy-neutral process — instead of the conventional dehydrogenation-of-ethylbenzene route, which is energy-intensive and…
Pipe passes fifty-year test
Two specimens made from Basell Corp.’s Hostalene GM5010 high-density polyethylene (HDPE) that were installed in October 1956 are still in service, according to Ulrich Schulte, head of the application and technical service for Basell’s Pipe and Sheet business unit and…
Stay-clean surfaces
Surfaces treated with Top on Top — a new surface refinement technology developed by Degussa AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6519-552) — are easy to clean and remain clean for months, according to Degussa. The product consists of two components that when…
Make your own batch of CNTs with this system
Up to now, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been produced from hydrocarbons in large, high-temperature furnaces operating in an inert-gas atmosphere. A simpler system that requires only a liquid reagent instead of multiple gas cylinders, has been commercialized by Microphase Co.,…
A ‘natural’ way to make an unnatural acid
Excelsyn Molecular Development (Holywell, U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6519-541) has made a “major” advance in its development of improved technology to produce the unnatural amino acid tert-L-leucine (tert-butyl glycine; TBG) — a precursor for synthesizing promising new drug candidates. Transaminase technology is a…
Use electric fields to pasteurize foodstuffs
An innovative design of a pulsed-electric-field (PEF) treatment unit for the inactivation of Escherichia coli bacteria has been developed by associate professor Mohammed Farid and Sally Alkhafaji at the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department of the School of Engineering, the…
H3PO4 recycling
Since 2002, the need for electronics-grade phosphoric acid as an etching agent for semiconductors in flat screens (liquid-crystal displays) has increased five fold, according to Thierry Vassalo, general manager at Febex S.A. (Box, Switzerland; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6519-545). In order to reduce manufacturing…
A new PET resin
Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, Tenn.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6519-549) has launched its next-generation PET (polyethylene terephthalate) resin, tradenamed ParaStar, which is made using the company’s proprietary IntegRex technology (CE, October 2004, p. 15). ParaStar is a drop-in replacement for standard PET on bottle-manufacturing…