Chemical Engineering
Real-Time Particle-Size Analysis Technologies: Overview and Case Study
Monitoring particle sizes in real time can improve product quality and reduce costs in chemical processes. Presented here is an overview of available technologies for particle-size analysis and an example involving suspension polymerization Effective measurement, in real time, of particle…
Chemenator Briefs
Ore Benefication Last month, Torngat Metals Ltd. (Montréal, Que., Canada: www.torngatmetals.com) and Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.mogroup.com) signed a contract for large-volume, pilot-scale processing of ore. The focus of the agreement is to pilot test the beneficiation of ore extracted…
Changes to Calculation Inputs for CEPCI Due to Discontinued Data Series
Discontinued series IDs associated with producer prices for storage tanks requires a modification to the CEPCI The Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index (CEPCI) is a widely used tool for comparing plant construction costs in the chemical process industries (CPI) between…
Lithium metal for next-generation batteries produced from Li2CO3 in pilot facility
In May, Li-Metal Corp. (Markham, Ont.; www.li-metal.com) announced the production of refined lithium metal from lithium carbonate salt using a new electrolysis process at the company’s pilot facility in Ontario, Canada. The lithium metal produced at the pilot plant is…
A photocatalytic platform for CO2 utilization
As more and more CO2 is finding its way into carbon-capture systems instead of the air, the demand for new technologies that actually utilize CO2 is also rising. A new photocatalysis platform developed by New Iridium (Boulder, Colo.; www.newiridium.com) can…
A new class of proton-conducting materials operates at lower temperatures
A new material could open the door to more effective protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs). PCFCs are a promising energy source that employ specialized ceramic materials to conduct protons (instead of electrons) at much lower temperatures than typical solid-oxide fuel…
This photocatalytic reactor system makes chemicals without fossil fuels
Last May, Emerson (St. Louis, Mo.; www.emerson.com) was selected by Syzygy Plasmonics (Houston; www.plasmonics.tech) to automate its all-electric photocatalytic reactor technology. Syzygy has developed, scaled and integrated its core technologies, incubated at, and licensed from, Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu), into…
Photochemistry boosts the yield of chiral compounds
Isolation and purification of pure, active enantiomers is important in the development of active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug products. However, recovering the desired optical isomer from a racemic mixture means half of the chemical produced — the undesired isomer —…
Commercial debut for a batch reverse-osmosis system
Earlier this year, Salinity Solutions Ltd. (Coventry, U.K.; www.salinitysolutions.co.uk) signed an agreement with Te-Tech Process Solutions (Totton, Southampton, U.K.; www.te-tech.co.uk) to manufacture commercial water-purification systems based on batch reverse-osmosis (RO). This technology, originally characterized and developed at the University of…
Euro Manganese awards EPCM contract to Wood Australia
Euro Manganese Inc. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada) has awarded the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management (EPCM) contract for its Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic to Wood Australia Pty Ltd. The Company has selected Wood as its EPCM partner following…