The major drawback of existing membranes for desalination plants is that the membranes are not tolerant of oxidizing agents, such as chlorine. To overcome this drawback, a team of researchers from the University of Melbourne (www.unimelb.edu.au) and CSIRO (Melbourne, Australia;…
A new pulsation dampener benefits from a design that can reportedly decrease energy usage. The Expulse, a flexible, inline pulsation dampener recently released by Flowrox Inc. (Linthicum, Md; www.flowrox.us), consists of a reinforced outer hose and an expansive inner hose,…
Construction is set to begin on a biorefinery in Oregon this summer that will manufacture bio-based jet fuel and diesel from forest and sawmill residues. When it begins producing biofuels at the end of 2016, it will be capable of…
Industrial gases specialist Messer Group GmbH (Bad Soden, Germany; www.messergroup.com) has developed a new cryogenic technology that makes it possible to use liquid nitrogen (LN2) to cool high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables down to –209°C, which is significantly lower than that…
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; www.ornl.gov) have demonstrated an efficient desalination process using a porous graphene-based desalination membrane. While the thinness of the freestanding graphene (roughly 0.3 nm) allows for significantly higher flux than traditional…
Nanocellulose pilot Sappi Ltd. (Johannesburg; South Africa; www.sappi.com) will build a pilot-scale plant for low-cost nanocellulose (Cellulose NanoFibrils; CNF) production at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus (Sittard-Geleen, the Netherlands; www.brightlands.com). The pilot plant will test the manufacturing of dry re-dispersible CNF…
A new study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; Golden, Colo.; www.nrel.gov) demonstrates the conversion of lignin-derived compounds to adipic acid, an important precursor for making nylon and other chemicals. The new route offers a “greener” alternative to conventional…
Biomass is a recalcitrant, heterogeneous matrix of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin that resists microbial and enzymatic breakdown. Overcoming this recalcitrance is the major economic barrier to the conversion of biomass to sugars or other chemicals. Heat, acid and other chemicals…
Adgex Ltd. (Sydney, Australia; www.adgex.com) is marketing a plant, tradenamed “Green Blaze,” for processing organic raw materials by means of high-speed ablative pyrolysis. According to the company, the plant (flowsheet) can be adapted to convert into synthetic fuel almost any…
Joule Unlimited (Bedford, Mass.; www.jouleunlimited.com) announced recently that it has achieved end-to-end production of ethanol from carbon dioxide and sunlight (CO2-to-ethanol), using its specially designed photobioreactor and engineered cyanobacteria. The full production runs occurred late last year at the company’s…