A two-year collaboration between Ashland Hercules Water Technologies (AHWT; Wilmington, Del.), a commercial unit of Ashland Inc. (Covington, Ky.; www.ashland.com), and BASF Nederland B.V. (Nijehaske, the Netherlands) has demonstrated that a combination of ultrasonic microbial control and corrosion inhibitors not…
A new distillation device developed by UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) will make its commercial debut in an ethylene separation column at LG Chem, Ltd.’s petrochemical plant in Yeosu, South Korea. Scheduled for startup in the near future, the…
Carbon nanotube membranes are being developed for water desalination and carbon dioxide sequestration by Porifera Inc. (Hayward, Calif.; www.poriferanano.com) under an exclusive license from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL, Livermore, Calif.). Porifera, a new company, expects to commercialize desalination membranes…
An economical method for producing glucaric acid from glucose was successfully scaled up three-fold to a 6-L reactor by its developer, Rivertop Renewables (Missoula, Mont.; www.rivertop.com). The company is planning to assemble a pilot-scale process capable of producing 3-million lb/yr.…
A device for the mass production of lactic acid oligomers, polylactic acid (PLA) and other polymers has been developed by Japanese researchers from the Renewable Plastics Group of the Research Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Chemistry, National Institute of Advanced…
Haldor Topsøe (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) will demonstrate a new technology that converts wood to liquid fuels, as part of a $25-million project funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov). Among the partners in the project are…
Aiding crystal growth Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; Upton, N.Y.; www.bnl.gov) have patented a method for absorbing hydrogen fluoride gas to enhance crystal growth. HF is commonly added to precursors to transfer crystalline order from a substrate to…
The power of osmosis Last month, Statkraft (Oslo, Norway; www.statkraft.com) opened what is claimed to be the world's first osmotic power plant. Although the prototype is very small (designed for 10 kW), the company believes data gained from the…
A multi-stage wet scrubber that combines the removal of sulfur, hydrogen chloride, sulfuric acid mist (SAM) and particulate matter (PM) in a single unit has reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by an average of 99.7% in its first large-scale commercial installation…
Changes in the rate of corrosion in water tubes have been detected within minutes by an externally mounted monitor developed by the Center for Nuclear Energy Research (CNER, Fredericton, NB, Canada; www.unb.ca/cner). The data were obtained in online tests over…