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An attractive catalyst for making biodiesel fuels

It has been known for a long time that sulfonated active-carbon acid can catalyze both esterification and transesterification to produce biodiesel fuels from oils with high acid value without pretreatment. However, the separation of such catalysts requires filtration or centrifugation,…

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Selective removal of micropollutants

Micropollutants, such as antibiotics and flame retardants, can pose a health threat to animals and humans, even in tiny concentrations. Current methods to remove micropollutants from the environment include adsorption onto powdered activated carbon, which is then separated from the…

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This wastewater-treatment process also captures carbon dioxide

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (Boulder, Colo.; www.colorado.edu) have developed a technology that combines wastewater treatment and carbon capture, resulting in a carbon-negative process that actually produces energy. The technology — called microbial electrolytic carbon capture (MECC) —…

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Ceramic membrane filtration to be demonstrated for removing oil from produced water

Japanese companies INPEX Corp. (Tokyo, www.inpex.co.jp), Chiyoda Corp. (Yokohama; www.chiyoda-corp.com), and Metawater Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, all Japan; www.metawater.co.jp) have been commissioned to build a small-scale demonstration facility that will use ceramic membrane filtration for treating produced water for Japan Oil,…

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A sound way to degas aluminum melts

During casting of aluminum alloys, degassing is required to remove hydrogen from the molten metal in order to prevent porosity in the solid metal that deteriorates its properties and performance. Currently, the so-called argon rotary degassing is used, where a…

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Phosphorus-free cooling water treatment

A new technology for treating cooling tower water is designed to control scale formation and provide corrosion protection without using phosphorus-containing compounds. Phosphorus from wastewater discharge is known to be a major factor in fueling algae blooms and excessive aquatic…

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Chementator Briefs

First FDI adopter With its Field Information Manager software, ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) has become the first host company to adopt new field-device integration (FDI) technology. The FDI platform offered by the FieldComm Group (Austin, Tex., www.fieldcommgroup.com) brings together for…

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Making hydrogen from methanol

The research group of professor Ken-ichi Fujita at Kyoto University (Kyoto, www.h.kyoto-u.ac.jp) has developed an efficient catalytic system for the production of hydrogen from an aqueous methanol solution. The process uses a new, anionic iridium complex bearing a functional bipyridonate…

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Commercial debut slated for redox flow batteries

A new concept for large-scale redox-flow batteries (RFB) for energy-storage applications has been developed by ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Dortmund, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com). The system is based on the oxidation and reduction of vanadium ions (diagram, top) for either storing electrical…

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A faster way to determine pKa values

Researchers from the University of Tasmania (Hobart, Australia; www.utas.edu.au) and the University of Barcelona (Spain; www.ub.edu) have found a method to drastically speed up capillary electrophoresis (CE) for measuring pKa values (acid dissociation constants). This is especially valuable for pharmaceutical…