Chementator
These batteries charge faster, last longer
A new lithium-ion battery that can be recharged in only two minutes — 20 times faster than with current technology — has been developed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore; www.ntu.edu.sg). The battery will also have a lifespan of…
Explosion-proof enclosure for world’s largest gas-to-urea plant
Protective-enclosure maker Intertec Inc. (Sarnia, Ont.; www.intertec.info) is building a unique, explosion-proof, pressurized shelter for a granulated urea warehouse at what will be the world’s largest, single-stream, gas-to-urea plant in Nigeria. The three-section enclosure protects personnel and electronics from potentially…
A new method for making beryllium-aluminum alloys expands accessibility
New techniques and equipment for manufacturing cast components made from beryllium-aluminum alloys can reduce the cost significantly, allowing the high-performance materials to be considered for a wide range of applications beyond their initial uses in the aerospace industry. Beryllium-aluminum alloys…
A new metals-recovery process moves to the pilot scale
Significant improvements to a process to extract vanadium, titanium and iron from the Mount Peake Vanadium-Titanium-Iron Project in the Northern Territory of Australia will be tested in a pilot plant now under construction and nearing completion. Results of the pilot-plant…
Carbon mineralization process monetizes CO2 from fluegas
The Capitol SkyMine project in San Antonio, Tex. utilizes fluegas from an existing cement plant to manufacture salable chemicals while preventing the CO2 from reaching the atmosphere. Built by Skyonic Corp. (Austin, Tex.; www.skyonic.com), the project is said to be…
Commercial debut for a new bioleaching process
Division Radomiro Tomic of Codelco (Codelco Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile; Santiago; www.codelco.www) is adopting a bioleaching process to recover copper from low-grade ores. The process was developed by BioSigma S.A. — a joint venture (JV) of JX Nippon…
November Chementator Briefs
Graphene continues to show new, promising properties Researchers from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.monash.edu.au) have discovered that graphene oxide sheets can change their structure and become liquid droplets spontaneously. Because graphene droplets change their structure in response to an…
‘Clean power’ demo
Last month, NET Power, LLC (Durham, N.C.; www.net-power.com) announced the completion of major project agreements for its first-of-a-kind power plant — a 50-MWth demonstration plant that will validate the world’s first natural-gas power generation system that produces no air emissions,…
Large-scale CCS
Last month, the first commercial-scale, post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant started up in Saskatchewan, Canada. The SaskPower facility at the Boundary Dam Power Station is expected to capture around 1 million m.t./yr of CO2, which is up to…
Making nanoparticles
Scientists from the Materials Science and Technology Div. of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, D.C.; www.nrl.navy.mil) have developed a one-step process to form oxide nanoparticles. The technique is capable of producing large quantities (10 g) of oxide nanoparticles —…