Chementator
A new material for large-scale energy storage devices
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU; Canberra; www.anu.edu.au), and the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia; www.unsw.edu.au) claim to have obtained a temperature- and frequency-independent colossal permittivity (CP) material with a low dielectric loss, making it strikingly superior…
November Chementator Briefs
Reforming catalyst Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) has introduced a new alkali-promoted steam-reforming catalyst, dubbed RK-400. RK-400 is engineered to protect against unwanted carbon formation while achieving a higher level of catalytic activity than those previously seen in…
Heat Transfer for Huge-Scale Fermentation
Industrial microbiology continues to hold the promise of producing an increasingly large array of commercially important chemicals because an ever-wider number of useful microbes is being developed and successfully deployed at commercially viable scales. Today, many of these bio-based chemicals…
First commercial-scale high-solids anaerobic digester in North America
Harvest Power (Waltham, Mass.; www.harvestpower.com) recently began operation of the first commercial-scale, high-solids anaerobic digester in North America. The facility produces biogas from food waste and yard waste in Richmond, B.C., Canada. “The anaerobic digester employs essentially the same biology…
Bacteria engineered to make gasoline
Short-chain hydrocarbons have been produced for the first time by microbial fermentation by a research team from the Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST; Daejeon, South Korea, www.kaist.ac.kr), led by…
A new catalyst for low-cost production of biodiesel fuel
Daiki Axis Co. (Matsuyama City, Japan; www.daiki-axis.com) has developed a new solid catalyst for biodiesel fuel production under the support of New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) under the authority of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry…
A new proppant
Last month, Carbo Ceramics Inc. (Houston; www.carboceramics.com) introduced KryptoSphere, an ultra-conductive, high-strength proppant technology designed to maximize and sustain hydrocarbon flow at high closure stresses for the life of the well. Developed in response to a request from a major…
Dandelion rubber
Last month saw the start of a five-year joint research project to extract rubber from dandelion plants to make tires. In collaboration with Continental AG (Hannover, Germany; www.continental-tires.com), the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME; Aachen, Germany;…
Transporting more H2 gas
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has developed a new storage technology that will enable a much more efficient transport of larger amounts of hydrogen. The new solution works at a higher pressure of 500 bars (7,250 psi) and uses…
Plasma-modified CNTs show promise for water purification
An international team of researchers claims to have developed carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes with an ultrahigh specific-adsorption capacity for salt that is two orders of magnitude higher than that found in current activated-carbon-based water-treatment systems. The team includes researchers from…