In January, the world’s first commercial plant to use the ITmk3 process began production of iron nuggets, which are used in steelmaking. The plant, constructed by Kobe Steel, Ltd. (Tokyo; www.kobelcom) and Steel Dynamics, Inc. (Fort Wayne, Ind.; www.steeldynamics.com) at…
A 1.5-mm-thick layer of a new filter material based on nanoscale alumina has shown the ability to filter greater than 99% of 0.03-µm latex spheres or 0.025-µm MS2 viruses with sustainable water velocities of around 1.5 cm/s at pressures of…
Toxic heavy metals can be drawn out of soils far more quickly than the traditional methods using a process developed by a team from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU; Lyngby; www.dtu.dk) and the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Valparaíso,…
The ethanol yield from biomass has been increased by about 50% over conventional yields in a process developed by ZeaChem Inc. (Lakewood, Colo.; www.zeachem.com). ZeaChem has tested the process (diagram) in a 3,500-gal fermenter and will activate a demonstration plant…
Coating technology that essentially eliminates carbon buildup on the interior of steam cracker tubes will be commercialized by Quantiam Technologies Inc. (Edmonton, Alta; www.quantiam.com). Commercial-scale tests in five ethylene crackers indicate that the coating can extend the time between furnace…
Last month at the National Ethanol Conference at Orlando, Fla., Novozymes’ A/S (Bagsvaerd, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) president and CEO, Steen Riisgaard, launched Cellic CTec2, a new enzyme product enabling the biofuel industry to produce cellulosic ethanol at a price below $2/gal…
A new Kraft pulp Weyerhaeuser Co. (Federal Way, Wash.; www.weyerhaeuser.com) says it has begun commercial production of a new grade of Kraft pulp for the cellulose derivatives market. Cellulose derivatives are used in various products, including lacquers, paints,…
Professor Shigeru Yamago and colleagues at the Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University (Japan; www.scl.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuyuki/) have synthesized [8]cycloparaphenylene for the first time. The 11-nm-dia. molecule consists of eight benzene molecules linked together in a closed chain. The compound has a…
A patented (WO 2008/053174), fluidic-oscillator-driven device that generates microbubbles has been shown by researchers from the University of Sheffield (U.K.; www.shef.ac.uk/cpe), in collaboration with the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Prague; www.cas.cz/en), to improve the performance of air-lift…
In Malaysia, about 2-million metric tons (m.t.) of rice husk are produced each year, and the rice husk is either burned or disposed of as waste. Now this waste may find application as a non-leachable building material thanks to a…