Last month at the IFAT trade fair (May 30–June 3; Munich, Germany), Huber SE (Berching: www.huber.de) and Microdyn-Nadir GmbH (Wiesbaden, both Germany: www.microdyn-nadir.de) unveiled a rotating membrane bioreactor (MBR) that utilizes membrane laminate technology. “By combining our two technologies we…
By the end of this year, a demonstration plant will start up in the U.S. that uses an electrochemical process to recover phosphorus from wastewater, producing a fertilizer as struvite (NH4MgPO4·6H2O). Although the location and capacity of the plant has…
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a versatile biopolymer, but its applications are somewhat limited due to its brittleness. Now, an alternative bio-based composite material has been developed that overcomes this limitation. Developed by the industry-university consortium of Hitachi Zosen Corp. (HITZ;…
A proprietary technology and patented process from GreenMantra Technologies (Brantford, Ont., Canada; www.greenmantra.ca) that produces synthetic waxes from underutilized plastic recycling streams, including films and bags, has reached commercialization. The company’s first industrial-scale manufacturing plant started up in May, and…
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL; Livermore, Calif.; www.llnl.gov) have combined biology and 3-D printing to create the first reactor that can continuously produce methanol from methane at room temperature and pressure. The team removed enzymes from methanotrophs —…
Scientists from the National Chung Hsing University (Taichung, Taiwan; www.nchu.edu.tw), led by professor Ming-Yen Wey, have successfully developed an alternative route for recycling plastic solid waste. They used waste polystyrene to develop membranes suitable for processes such as carbon capture,…
Post-combustion carbon-capture processes that are based on adsorption of CO2 by amine compounds reduce the power output of coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants largely due to the energy required to regenerate the CO2 from the adsorbent material. In another approach,…
Cooling-tower motor A new electric motor for driving cooling-tower fans features a design that prevents current from flowing through the shaft bearings, allowing longer lifetime and less maintenance. The TEAO motor, made by Marathon Motors Corp. (Wausau, Wis.; www.marathonelectric.com) also…
A hybrid process that combines micro-flotation and flat-sheet ceramic-membrane filtration to remove oil and suspended solids from difficult-to-treat industrial wastewater has been commercialized by akvola Technologies (Berlin, Germany; www.akvola.com). The system can treat water with high oil loads (up to…
A direct copolymerization of carbon dioxide and diols has been achieved by Keiichi Tomishige and Masazumi Tamura at Tohoku University (Sendai; www.che.tohoku.ac.jp) and Hiroshi Sugimoto at Tokyo University of Science (both Japan; www.sut.ac.jp). The synthesis takes place with a metal-oxide…