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Chemical Engineering

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Chementator Briefs

CO2 to CO SK Innovation Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, an R&D organization of SK Innovation Co. Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea; www.skinnovation.com), has successfully manufactured about 1 kg/d of CO using diatomic catalyst (DAC) technology, which selectively converts CO2…

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Converting natural gas to alcohols using MOFs

Capturing natural gas from petroleum drilling wells is economically challenging, but would have positive environmental impacts because it would eliminate the need for flaring and could allow the hydrocarbons to be converted into useful chemicals. Now, research led by chemists…

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Direct molten-salt electroplating cuts battery costs

The extremely high material purity demanded for conventional lithium-ion battery manufacturing creates considerable costs for transporting and refining lithium and other raw materials. Through the development of a single-step electroplating process that uses lower-purity raw materials and a nanostructured-foam electrode…

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First commercial DAC facility in the U.S. captures CO2 for concrete

In November 2023, Heirloom Carbon Technologies (Tracy, Calif.; www.heirloomcarbon.com) unveiled the United States’ first commercial direct air capture (DAC) facility, which can capture up to 1,000 ton/yr of CO2. The process first uses renewable energy to remove CO2 from limestone…

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Fouling-immune membrane available for brackish-water RO applications

In November 2023, the first commercial test was initiated for a novel, fouling-immune membrane for brackish-water reverse osmosis (BWRO) applications through an early-access program. Membrane developer ZwitterCo (Woburn, Mass.; www.zwitterco.com) says its membrane is fouling-immune in cases where fouling of…

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Business News: January 2024

Plant Watch Trinseo inaugurates new PMMA depolymerization plant in Italy December 7, 2023 — Trinseo (Berwyn, Pa.; www.trinseo.com) inaugurated a new polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) depolymerization plant in Rho, Italy. This depolymerization operation will be designed to enable the efficient recycling…

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Cybersecurity Threats Prompt Proactive Approach

An evolving threat landscape for plant security is attracting more attention to the development of operational technology (OT)-specific cybersecurity programs, underlining the importance of collaboration and blurring the line between cyber- and physical security Cybersecurity threats against critical infrastructure sites,…

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Corrosion Prevention for Heating and Cooling Systems

Understanding that viable strategies exist to protect essential cooling and heating systems from corrosion is a crucial step in ensuring proper asset protection Several years ago, a manufacturing plant was forced to unexpectedly shut down one of its main production…

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Facts At Your Fingertips: Metal-Organic Frameworks: Industrial Applications

Metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) have garnered considerable attention as candidate materials for a number of applications, such as gas storage, molecular separation and catalysis, because their organic and inorganic components are highly tunable at the molecular level. Since being introduced…

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From Waste to Resource: Avoiding Fouling in Ammonia Recovery

As more organizations look to ammonia recovery to take advantage of recent pricing trends, it is increasingly important to consider the impacts of fouling and other process inefficiencies The price of ammonia has increased by 600% from 2020 to 2022…