An Australian team has implemented several changes to the conventional organic rankine cycle, resulting in a highly efficient regenerative thermodynamic cycle for producing electricity from waste heat and other thermal sources. The University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Center for Energy…
A metal-free catalyst system involving ionic liquids and doped carbon nanofibers can efficiently reduce carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, offering a cost-effective electrochemical route from CO2 to synthesis gas (syngas), and further, to liquid transportation fuels. A research group at…
A new method for removing uranium and other heavy metals (HMs) from wastewater has been developed by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland (Joensuu; www.uef.fi). The technology has been licensed by Oy Chemec AB (Espoo, Finland; www.chemec.fi), which plans…
Sludge dewatering Last month, Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso.com) introduced what it claims to be the worlds first advanced solution — both measurements and control system — to optimize sludge dewatering at wastewater treatment plants. The Metso SDO (sludge…
Pilot plant operation has been completed for a process that produces the fertilizer potassium sulfate from the mineral polyhalite, a hydrated sulfate of potassium, magnesium and calcium. The process, developed by Intercontinental Potash Corp. (ICP; Golden, Colo.; www.icpotash.com), resurrects a…
The National Food Research Institute (NFRI) of the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO; Tsukuba City, Japan; www.naro.affrc.go.jp) has developed an enzymatic pretreatment process for producing highly concentrated sugar solution from fibrous materials containing rice straw and starch. The…
Construction of a large-scale waste-to-energy plant will start in the middle of next year in Port Hedland, Western Australia, and operation is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2015. The plant will be built by the New Energy…
Last month, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; www.mhi.co.jp) and Tokyo Gas Co. (both Tokyo, Japan; www.tokyo-gas.co.jop) began marketing a jointly developed 1,000-kW gas-engine cogeneration system. Based on the conventional 930-kW system, the new systems engine operates at a reduced speed…
Acetic acid from syngas A new process for the production of acetic acid claims to be more efficient and cost-effective than current technologies. Carbonylation of methanol has been the leading acetic acid technology for several decades, but BP plc…
The effluent discharged by domestic industries in Japan amounts to approximately 11.1 billion ton/yr. Most of this waste is comprised of relatively low concentrations of organic matter. Today, most of this effluent is treated by aerobic biotreatment (activated sludge). However,…