A microbial process originally designed to remediate soils contaminated with hydrocarbons has accelerated the recovery of bitumen from oil sands fivefold in bench-scale tests conducted at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL, South Carolina; srnl.doe.gov). The heart of the process is…
Consol Energy Inc. (Pittsburgh, Penn.; www.consolenergy.com), the nation’s largest producer of bituminous coal, and Synthesis Energy Systems Inc. (SES, Houston, Tex.; www.synthesisenergy.com) have formed a joint venture to build a coal-to-gasoline plant near Benwood, W.Va., close to Consol’s Shoemaker complex.…
Controlling particle size is critical in alumina processing, especially when alumina crystals are precipitated from Bayer liquor — a highly caustic solution where bauxite is dissolved to produce alumina. The ability to control the conditions of the precipitation process through…
Verenium Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.verenium.com) and BP p.l.c. (London; www.bp.com) have formed a partnership to accelerate the development and commercialization of Verenium’s technology for producing ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks such as sugarcane bagasse, switchgrass, rice straw and wood chips. In…
Metabolix, Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.metabolix.com) has demonstrated, in recently completed greenhouse trials, that switchgrass plants engineered using the firm’s multi-gene expression technology produced significant amounts polyhydroxybutyrate (a polyhydroxyalkanoate; PHA) bioplastics in leaf tissues. The result is said to be the…
BHR Biofuels, a subsidiary of BHR Group (Cranfield, U.K., www.bhrgroup.co.uk), has installed and demonstrated two process-intensified, full-size Biodiesel Reactor Systems at a chemical plant producing biodiesel from waste and virgin oils. The reactor systems are said to consume some 70%…
Rentech, Inc. (Los Angeles, Calif.; www.rentechinc.com) has produced its first run of jet fuel from its Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) product demonstration unit (PDU) in Commerce City, Colo. The plant produces a synthesis gas of hydrogen and carbon monoxide by steam-reforming of…
Conventional cooling systems rely on the properties of gases to cool, but common coolants are either harmful to people or the environment. A different approach is being investigated by researchers at the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Penn State University (University…
A new metal carbide F-T catalyst has been developed by Oxford Catalysts Limited (Oxford, U.K., www.oxfordcatalysts.com) for making second-generation biofuel in small-scale microchannel reactors. The catalyst was produced using the company’s patented organic matrix combustion method, which makes it possible…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen; www.evonik.com) and SolarWorld AG (Bonn, both Germany; www.solarworld.de) have opened a new solar silicon plant in Rheinfelden (Baden, Germany). As part of the joint venture (JV) Joint Solar Silicon (JSSI), the two companies are using a…