Chementator
A promising new forward-osmosis membrane
Forward osmosis (FO) has been recognized as a valuable technology for many applications including wastewater reclamation, seawater desalination, and energy production, due to the low energy input required. The osmotic pressure gradient across a semipermeable FO membrane causes water to…
U.S. power plant goes dry for handling bottom ash
Practically all of the coal-fired power plants in the U.S. collect ash from the bottoms of their boilers using a wet system — the ash falls into hoppers that are partially filled with water, and once or twice per shift…
Fuel-cell anode
A new anode material with nanostructured interfaces between barium oxide and nickel prevents deactivation by coking in solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) using carbon-containing fuels. The material offers a path to low-cost, low-emission SOFCs that can convert gasified carbon fuels to…
Three-mechanism grinding mill achieves finer, more uniform particles
A newly introduced cryogenic grinding mill from Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (Allentown, Pa.; www.airproducts.com/ultrafine) can generate consistent yields of particles between 45 and 250 µm, and in some applications can achieve particle sizes of 10 µm. The ultrafine grinding…
August Chementator Briefs
Graphene from dry ice Researchers at Northern Illinois University (NIU; DeKalb, Ill.; www.niu.edu) discovered a new method for producing graphene that involves burning pure magnesium metal in dry ice. The method, which is capable of producing large quantities of…
A touch of gold makes a swell absorbent foam
The properties of gold nanoparticles could be combined with those of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to provide a sustainable and practical solution for water treatment, according to a team from the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research (Bangalore, India; www.jncasr.ac.in). The…
This new membrane bioreactor cuts energy costs and boosts throughput
GE Power & Water (Trevose, Penn.; ge.com) has introduced an improved membrane bioreactor (mbr) technology whose productivity is said to be 15% higher than that of its predecessor for wastewater treatment plants. The new system, called LEAPmbr, was derived from…
Practice Green Chemical Engineering
Almost by definition, chemical engineering is a “green” discipline today, as it so often involves efforts to optimize chemical processes in order to reduce the amount of energy and raw materials that are used and the amount of waste that…
A catalyst line with low or zero rare-earth metals
Grace Davison (Columbia, Md.; www.grace.com) has commercialized a set of catalysts and additives for fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) that contain either zero or low rare-earth metal content. The new product family, known as Replacer, includes new catalysts for processing both…
An innovative way to recover elemental sulfur from SO2 emissions
Sulfur dioxide emissions from metals smelters and other process plants are typically treated by converting the SO2 to sulfuric acid, but this may not be convenient, because of the shipping cost for plants located far from an acid market. WorleyParsons…