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A new way to grow functional MOFs

A team from CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (Melbourne, Australia; www.csiro.au) has developed a new technique for growing smart materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which can be used in pollution control, or as catalysts, or for transporting drugs in…

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Commercial production of ‘Bio-cokes’

Last month, construction was completed on the world’s first commercial plant to produce a next-generation solid fuel, called Bio-cokes, at Takatsuki, Japan. The renewable material is produced from forest residues and can be used as an alternative to coal-based coke…

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A renewable, green oxidation catalyst

Scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Tsukuba, Japan; www.aist.go.jp), in collaboration with Tokyo University of Science and Panchakot Mahavidyalaya University, have demonstrated that a nickel-complex-type organic nanotube (Ni-ONT), developed by AIST, can catalyze oxidation…

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Commercial production for a self-cleaning coating

Last month, PJI Contract Pte Ltd. (Singapore; www.pjicon.com.sg) opened a production facility for the manufacture of titanium dioxide solution — a self-cleaning, nanocoating material developed at Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech; www.simtech.a-star.edu.sg), a research institute of the Agency for…

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Solar cells made of carbon nanotubes

A solar cell made of carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber has been demonstrated by researchers from Fudan University (Shanghai; www.fudan.edu.cn). University professor Huisheng Peng says, “For the fibers we use, the carbon nanotubes exhibit a high degree of alignment with much…

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Desalination without pressure or membranes

After a nine-month field demonstration at BTX, Inc.’s Sleepy well site in Indiana, Pa., Altela Inc.’s (Albuquerque, N.M.; www.altelainc.com) AltelaRain 4000 water desalination system has been shown to turn Marcellus Shale wastewater into distilled water. The demonstration, funded by the…

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May Chementator Briefs

  Wastewater reuse Aqua-Chem Inc. (Knoxville, Tenn.; www.aqua-chem.com) has developed a filtration-based process for purifying wastewater from large-scale carpet manufacturing. The process effectively removes dyes and other additives from wastewater to reduce concentrations from around 800 ppm to less than…

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Freeze-drying based on fine-spray produces uniform microspheres

A freeze-drying system recently commercialized by ULVAC, Inc. (Chigasaki, Japan; www.ulvac.co.jp) produces spherical particles by spraying a solution into a vacuum chamber. The approach has numerous advantages over conventional freeze-drying, and can be used for generating dry powders in the…

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CNT-enhanced membranes show promise for desalination method

By immobilizing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within polymer membrane pores, scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT; Newark, N.J.; www.njit.edu) were able to significantly improve the efficiency of desalination via a membrane distillation process. Somenath Mitra and colleagues at…

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A step closer to commercial production of spider silk

Spider silk has many unique properties that make it suitable for applications such as coatings and medical products. As a protein, the silk is remarkably stable and is only destroyed physically or digested and recycled by the spider. However, an…