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Separation Processes

Air Liquide and BASF welcome support from European Innovation Fund for joint CCS project

Air Liquide S.A. (Paris, France) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) are planning to develop the world’s largest cross-border carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain. The goal is to significantly reduce CO2 emissions at the industrial cluster in the port…

Improved process for recycling used motor oil produces higher-grade base oils

Front-end engineering design (FEED) is underway for a facility designed to de-contaminate and upgrade used motor oil from passenger vehicles into a higher-value product mix of base oils than is currently possible with existing motor-oil recycling processes, and in a…

Recovering phosphoric acid from sewage-sludge incineration ash

This month, SusPhos B.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.susphos.com) is increasing the capacity ten-fold of its 25-kg/d pilot plant in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. The pilot plant, which began operating in January, is being used to develop a process that recovers phosphorus…

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Perfluorinated Ion-Exchange Membranes: Development and Application

Perfluorinated ion-exchange membranes are developing beyond legacy applications to find use in a wide variety of emerging markets, including renewable energy Ion-exchange membranes are used in numerous industrial processes, including seawater desalination, electrodialysis and the production of commodity chemicals via…

Membrane productivity springs forward with new degradation-control method

The ability to precisely control the molecular structure of polymer membranes could expand their use in challenging separations, such as the purification of xylene isomers. Using highly selective membranes that can be operated at ambient conditions to separate such hydrocarbons…

Operation begins at the world’s largest direct air capture, CO2-storage plant

Last month, Climeworks (Zurich, Switzerland; www.climeworks.com) started operations of Orca, said to be the world’s first and largest climate-positive direct air capture (DAC) and storage plant. Located in Hellisheiði, Iceland, the Orca plant has a capturing capacity of 4,000 ton/yr…

Integration of CO2 direct air capture and alcohol-to-jet fuels manufacturing

A feasibility study is underway for the world’s first commercial facility that integrates direct air capture (DAC) of atmospheric carbon dioxide with gas fermentation of CO2 and production of aviation fuels. LanzaTech (Chicago, Ill.; www.lanzatech.com) and Carbon Engineering (Squamish, B.C.;…

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Sieve Tray Stability Factor Based on Efficiency Data

Using a vast collection of experimental distillation-column data, sieve tray stability, and its influence on efficiency, are explored in terms of several physical and mechanical properties For trayed distillation columns, the concept of tray stability was introduced by the author…

Solar-powered water extraction from atmospheric air

A first-of-its-kind pilot project in Abu Dhabi is integrating large-scale atmospheric water generation (AWG) with solar-thermal energy storage to enable carbon-free production of water. Led by partners AQUOVUM LLC (Dover, Del.; www.aqvglobal.com), Masdar Clean Energy (www.masdar.ae) and Khalifa University of…

Increasing recovery of metals from refractory mine tailings

EnviroGold Global Ltd. (Toronto, Ont., Canada; www.envirogoldglobal.com) has filed a patent application for a proprietary electrochemical process designed to achieve advanced metal recoveries from refractory ores with reduced capital expenditures (capex) compared to industry standard solutions. “The residual metals contained…