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…
Kraton Corp. (Houston) announced a significant expansion of its styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymers (SBS) supply capability at its Belpre, Ohio facility starting in 2024. The production capacity is expected to increase by 24,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) by 2025. "We…
Saint-Gobain (Courbevoie, France) has signed a binding agreement for the sale of its glass processing business Glassolutions in Switzerland to the privately-owned German group AEQUITA. The business generated sales of around €25 million in 2022 and employs approximately 70 people…
Lummus Technology (Houston) announced an integrated technology award from SP Chemicals and its subsidiary SP Olefins. SP Chemicals will license Lummus' CATOFIN® technology for a new 800,000-ton/yr propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit, and SP Olefins will license Lummus' Novolen technology for a new…
Umicore N.V. (Brussels, Belgium) and Blue Current, a leading manufacturer of silicon elastic composite solid-state batteries, have agreed to strengthen their collaboration on the development of solid-state battery technology, with Umicore investing a minority stake in the U.S.-based start-up. This…
On this episode of the Chemical Engineering podcast, our guests are polymer chemist Scott Trenor, a principal scientist at Milliken Chemical Company, and Anindya Mukherjee, the co-founder of GO!PHA, an organization promoting the development of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as an alternative…