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August Chementator Briefs

  Anti-hydrolysis agent Teijin Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; www.teijin.co.jp) has developed a new carbodiimide anti-hydrolysis agent that is said to exhibit “superior” anti-hydrolysis properties to improve the durability of plastics. The agent has the additional advantage of not emitting isocyanate gas,…

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This FCC process shown to enhance olefins production

JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (JX_NOE; Tokyo, Japan; www.noe.jx-group.co.jp) has demonstrated enhanced propylene and butenes yields by its high-severity, fluid-catalytic cracking (HS-FCC) technology. In a 3,000-bbl/d semi-commercial plant, which has been operating at the company’s Mizushima Refinery since May…

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Reduce air consumption from AODD pumps with this technology

New technology developed for air-operated, double-diaphragm (AODD) pumps can reduce consumption of compressed air by up to 60% without electronic components, while maintaining the same flowrates. The reduced air consumption translates directly to lower energy usage. Developed by Wilden Pump…

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Modified PU foam shows promise as sponge for soaking up oil spills

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing; www.cas.ac.cn) have found a way to transform polyurethane (PU) foam into a sponge that is strongly water-repellent and oil-absorbing, making it suitable for soaking up chemicals and petroleum from spills. One of…

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Inorganic membranes show promise to halve energy consumption in distillation

Japanese researchers from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki City; www.nedo.go.jp), Waseda University, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (JX_NOE) and five other companies along with five more universities have developed an inorganic membrane that enables…

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Electromagnetic separation technology applied to aquaculture

Technology originally developed for harvesting oil from algae has now been applied to sanitize water and remove ammonia from commercial aquaculture ponds. Electro Water Separation (EWS) technology, developed by OriginOil Technologies (Los Angeles, Calif.; www.originoil.com), applies pulses of tuned electromagnetic…

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Linde to help commercialize an oil-from-algae process

Sapphire Energy, Inc. (San Diego, Calif.; www.sapphireenergy.com) and The Linde Group (Munich; www.linde.com) have signed an agreement, with a minimum span of five years, to commercialize Sapphire’s process for producing crude oil from algae. The agreement expands an existing partnership…

A solid way to eliminate contaminants from wastewater

CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship (Perth, Western Australia; www.csiro.au/MDU) has developed a method that uses hydrotalcite formation to simultaneously remove contaminants from mining and industrial wastewaters in a single step. Current wastewater-treatment processes typically produce lime-based slurries, often with large…

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Desalination sans membranes

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin (www.utexas.edu) and the University of Marburg (Germany; www.uni-marburg.de) are developing a process, called electrochemically mediated seawater desalination, that promises to be an inexpensive way to desalinate small volumes of water. The patent-pending…

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Commercialization is set for a biomass-to-gasoline process

A process that is expected to produce high-octane gasoline from non-food biomass for an average cost of $1.50/gal, depending on feed costs, will be commercialized by Cool Planet Energy Systems (Denver, Colo.; www.coolplanet.com). The company has tested the process in…