Heat plus light may boost solar energy efficiency
Photovoltaic cells typically operate at 20% efficiency in converting solar energy to electricity. A new…
In The News
Chementator
This membrane system extracts hydrogen from mixed gas streams
A metal membrane system developed by Eltron Research and Development (Boulder, Colo., www.eltronresearch.com) separates hydrogen…
A promising way to reduce the cost of producing oil from oil sands
Roughly 80% of the heavy oil in Alberta’s oil sands is too deep for open-pit…
Food from algae
TNO (Delft; www.tno.nl) and Ingrepro Renewables B.V. (Borculo, both the Netherlands; www.ingrepro.nl) have started a…
Sugar-derived compounds can be model solidifiers for oil spills
Professor George John and graduate student Swapnil Jadhav at the City College of New York…
September chementator briefs
Worlds largest PDH unit Lummus Technology (Bloomfield, N.J.), a CB&I company (The Woodlands, Tex.;…
Enzyme-based method could make CO2 capture economically viable
Codexis (Redwood City, Calif.; www.codexis.com) and CO2 Solution (Quebec City, Canada; www.co2solution.com) have jointly developed…
An attractive way to remove arsenic from water
A magnetic composite based on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) has been developed by a Korean…
A more efficient, less expensive way to continuously make bioethanol
An enhanced reactor technology that boosts the speed of producing bioethanol by a factor of…
A new iodine-based catalyst for asymmetric synthesis
Professor Kazuaki Ishihara and colleagues at Nagoya University (Nagoya, Japan;www.nubio.nagoya-u.ac.jp/indexe.HTM) has discovered an efficient, chiral,…
Business News
Outotec technology for a copper-concentrator expansion in Iran
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has been awarded an order from an Italian company IRASCO…
UOP to expand petrochemicals production in South Korea
HC Petrochem Co. has selected UOP LLC Des Plaines, Ill; www.uop.com) to provide technology for…
Foster Wheeler: Initial biomass results encouraging
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com), announced today that its Global Engineering and Construction Group,…
Toyo-China wins contract for a new ETA plant
Toyo Engineering Corp. China, a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan;…
Fluor awarded Shell's Project Hijau Gasoil Phase-1 in Malaysia
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced today that it was awarded the Project Hijau Gasoil…
Jacobs receives contract for Huntsman expansion in Singapore
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) has received a contract from Huntsman Corp. (The…
ItN Nanovation and ThyssenKrupp Xervon Energy establish partnership
ItN Nanovation AG (Saarbrücken; Germany www.itn-nanovation.de), a Nanostart AG (Frankfurt; www.nanostart.de) portfolio company, has signed an…
Axens technology for Socar & Turcas Aegean Refinery
SOCAR & Turcas Refining has selected Axens’ (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) hydrotreating technologies for its Aegean…
BASF to establish world-scale production of water treatment and paper chemicals in Nanjing
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has decided to establish a wholly-owned world-scale production base for…
ABB commissions the most powerful gearless mill drives ever built
ABB (Baden, Switzerland; www.abb.com) has commissioned automation and power equipment that increases production at Boliden…
ABB and Dresser Masoneilan to collaborate on ESD valve integration
ABB (www.abb.com) will collaborate with Dresser Masoneilan (both Houston; www.dressermasoneilan.com) on an integrated process to…
B&W JV signs contract for two large, ultra-efficient coal-fired boilers in China
The Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W; Charlotte, N.C.; www.babcock.com) announced today that Babcock & Wilcox…
New European distribution center for Dow Corning
Dow Corning Corp. (Midland, Mich.; www.dowcorning.com) will invest in a 32,000-m2, energy-efficient distribution center in…
DOE: More funding for biomass R&D
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) Secretary Steven Chu announced today the investment…
Successful start of methanol-to-olefins unit in China
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) announced today that a plant using the combined DMTO methanol-to-olefins…
DyStar sells Brunsbüttel site
CBW Chemie GmbH Bitterfeld Wolfen (www.cbwchem.com) and WeylChem Group (www.weylchem.com) have reached an agreement with…
GSK signs agreement with Lonza
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK; Brentford, U.K.; www.gsk.com) and Lonza (Basel, Switzerland; www.lonza.com) today announced that they have…
A new PET plant for OCTAL
OCTAL Petrochemicals (www.octal.com) recently signed a contract with Uhde Inventa-Fischer (Berlin, Germany and Domat/Ems, Switzerland;…
Schenck Process sign sales agreement with FCT-ACTech
Schenck Process GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany; www.schenckprocess.com) FCT-ACTech Pty Ltd. (Thebarton, Australia; www.fctinternational.com) have signed a…
IOCL selects Axens' CGO hydrotreating technology
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL; New Delhi; www.iocl.com) has chosen Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) to…
Outotec technology for Konkola Copper Mines
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has received an order from Konkola Copper Mines for the…
Solvay invests in electronic-grade HF
Solvay S.A. Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) and its Chinese partner Sinochem Lantian have decided to build…
JGC and Abengoa Solar to jointly own two CSP plants in Spain
JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) and Abengoa Solar (Seville, Spain; www.abengoasolar.com) have formed a partnership…
Outotec and Kemira to develop solutions for water-intensive industrial applications
Outotec Oyj (Espoo; www.outotec.com) Kemira Oyj (Helsinki, both Finland; www.kemira.com) have signed a strategic cooperation…
Solvay increases Tecnoflon production capacity
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has decided to increase the production capacity for peroxide-curable (PC)…
Outotec: Iron-ore sinter plant for SAIL in India
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has won an order from Steel Authority of India Ltd…
Hangzhou Hangding Nylon orders PA-6 plant
Uhde Inventa-Fischer (Domat/Ems, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany; www.uhde-inventa-fischer.com) and Hangzhou Hangding Nylon Tech. Co., Ltd.,…
Dow Corning considers biomass plant to produce steam and electricity; and more business news
Dow Corning considers biomass plant to produce steam and electricity August 20, 2010 — Dow…
ABB wins three-year maintenance-partnership agreement in Oman
ABB (Houston; www.abb.com) has announced that its local company in Oman, ABB Oman LLC has…
Solar Semi Engineering acquires Edwards CME
Solar Semi Engineering Ltd. (SSE; U.K.; www.solsemi.com) , a solar and semiconductor start-up company, today…
Technical & Practical
Fractionation Column: Pushing capacity limits
Starting around 1970, many new contacting devices became available for use in distillation, absorption and…
Recover Waste Heat From Fluegas
Adding an organic Rankine cycle system to generate power onsite can help operators optimize the…
Polymer-Based Piping Systems in the CPI
Polymeric piping systems have been used in well-defined segments of the chemical process industries (CPI)…
Counting On Process Analytical Technology
If the debate that culminated in passage of national healthcare reform in the U.S. is…
Applying CPI Temperature Sensors
When selecting a temperature sensor, don’t fall back on outdated rules of thumb that may…
Facts at Your Fingertips
Controlling Membrane Fouling
The deposition and accumulation of suspended and dissolved particles on membrane surfaces leads to performance…