Honeywells UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) has developed a process that makes a renewable, “drop-in” jet fuel from sustainable oils, including camelina, tallow, jatropha or algae. Similar to the the UOP/Eni Ecofining process for making Green Diesel fuel (CE,…
Efforts to make a completely sustainable route to polymers based on vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) are progressing at Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com). VAM — a precursor for polyvinyl acetate and ethylene-vinyl-acetate copolymers used for making dispersible polymer powders…
Co-processing of biomass-derived feed with petroleum feed for the production of diesel fuel is a tricky business, given that the former (unlike petroleum) contains oxygen. The oxygenates can be removed by hydrotreating, which converts the biofeed to normal paraffins, but…
A process that destroys hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and recovers high-purity calcium fluoride has been developed by chemical-engineering professor Hideki Yamamoto at Kansai University (Suita City, Osaka; www.cheng.kansai-u.ac.jp/Process) in cooperation with Shiraishi Kogyo Kaisha Ltd. (Amagasaki City, Osaka; both Japan; www.shiraishi.co.jp/kogyo). The technology…
A new approach to the design of the downcomer portion of distillation column trays — presented at the recent American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Spring 2010 meeting (San Antonio, Tex.; March 21–25) — promotes a uniform fluid flow pattern,…
Engineers at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA; www.ucla.edu) have developed a new class of highly permeable reverse-osmosis (RO) membranes for water desalination that incorporates a “brush layer” of hydrophilic polymer chains anchored to the membrane surface. Brownian motion of…
By genetically modifying E. coli — introducing four enzymatic genes from bacteria of the Clostridium family — Mitsui Chemicals Corp. (Mitsui, Tokyo, www.mitsuichem.com) has increased the selectivity for fermenting glucose into isopropyl alcohol (IPA) from 40% to up to 70%.…
A low-cost method for fabricating microfluidic diagnostics devices using cotton, paper, or other multifilament threads has been developed by a team from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.eng.monash.edu.au). The devices can be used to provide qualitative and, at least, semi-quantitative analyses…
This month, Showa Denko K. K. (Tokyo, Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) will begin marketing its carbon-nanotube (CNT) product, tradenamed VGCF-X. The company produces the CNTs in its new, 400-ton/yr production plant at its Oita facility, and plans to ramp up production to…
Scientists at Carbon Sciences Inc. (Santa Barbara, Calif.; www.carbonsciences.com) have successfully demonstrated a CO2-to-fuel process that proceeds under mild conditions using fluegas emissions as a carbon dioxide source and brackish water as a hydrogen source. The modular, three-step process is…