BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has developed an industrially viable process for synthesizing metal organic frameworks (MOFs), and plans to scaleup the process within the next two years. MOFs are crystalline compounds consisting of metal ions or clusters coordinated to…
Construction has started in Qinzhou, China, on the first commercial plant to use a new process for producing fuels from oil shale, to be imported from Indonesia. The process was developed by China Chemical Economical Cooperation Center (CCECC) and AuraSource,…
A combined coal-gasification and methane-reforming process using coal char as catalyst has been developed by a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences [Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy & Bioprocess Technology (english.qibebt.cas.cn), and the Institute of Coal Chemistry (english.sxicc.cas.cn)] and from…
A hydrometallurgical process for nickel laterite deposits — believed to be the only process capable of treating any laterite deposits, from limonitic to saprolitic ores, in a single flowsheet — has been developed by Direct Nickel Pty. Ltd. (DNi; Sydney,…
Evonik Industries’ business unit Performance Polymers (www.evonik.com) is planning to construct a new plant for the production of methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer, using its newly developed proprietary Aveneer process. When the plant starts up in 2014, it will produce 150,000–200,000…
A new SM process Exelus Inc. (Livingston, N.J.; www.exelusinc.com) received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.) to help pilot the company’s styrene monomer (SM) process ( CE, January 2007, p. 13). The funds are…
Aerzen Maschinenfabrik GmbH (Aerzen, Germany; www.aerzen.com) has commercialized the first rotary lobe compressor, the Delta Hybrid, which combines the technologies of both a rotary lobe blower and a screw compressor. This union reduces the energy consumption by up to 15%…
A microreactor system for producing hydrogen peroxide from H2 and O2 has been developed by Sohei Matsumoto and Tomoya Inoue at the Research Center for Ubiquitous MEMS and Micro Engineering, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Tsukuba,…
In order to shift the country’s energy base from petroleum, the Indonesian government has implemented a policy aimed at shifting to coal. Because low-rank coal (LRC) accounts for about 80% of the nation’s coal resources, effective utilization of these reserves…
Standardized steam-methane-reforming (SMR) reactor units recently commercialized by Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) allow direct hydrogen production at customer sites at costs much lower than those associated with alternative H2 supply modes, including electrolysis and transporting compressed or liquefied H2.…