The world has vast geothermal resources in the temperature range of 150–250°F, but these temperatures are too low for economical exploitation, using today’s technology. A process that could change the benchmark is being developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL,…
The use of residual sludge from municipal sewage plants as fertilizer in agriculture is controversial (due to heavy metals and other pollutants), and slurry can no longer be disposed of in landfills in many countries. A less expensive alternative to…
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS, Beltsville, Md.; www.ars.usda.gov) has received a patent on a process for producing activated carbon from poultry litter, which consists of bedding materials such as sawdust and peanut shells, along with droppings and feathers. U.S.-grown broiler…
A wastewater treatment process that consumes less energy, produces less sludge and makes available up to 75% of the water for reuse — including that of potable water quality — has been commercialized by Linde Gases, a division of The…
A team from Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.pharm.monash.edu.au), has developed an approach — a hybrid mixing and milling process — for producing fine (1–20 µm) pharmaceutical powders with good flow and de-agglomeration properties. Team…
New industrial process-optimization software can be fully operational in seven days — months ahead of existing predictive monitoring systems, according to Slipstream Software (Alpharetta, Ga.; www.slipstreamrpm.com). The company’s proprietary data-modeling tools are responsible for the reduced setup time. By mining…
Over the past few weeks there has been a number of announcements on projects aimed to further develop algae-to-fuels technology (see also, “Pond Strength,” CE, September 2008, pp. 22–25). Plankton Power (Wellfleet; www.planktonpower.com) and the Regional Technology Development Corp. of…
Pilot-scale production of biobased succinic acid from dextrose has been demonstrated by Myriant Technologies (Quincy, Mass., www.myriant.com). The firm expects commercial production by mid-2010. The succinic-acid process follows Myriant’s successful commercialization with partner Purac (Blair, Neb.; www.purac.com) of a biobased…
In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agancy (EPA; Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov) announced the winners of the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Winners of the Challenge, which promotes R&D of less hazardous alternatives to existing technologies that reduce or eliminate…
Stirling Energy Systems (SES; Phoenix, Ariz.; www.stirlingenergy.com) and Tessera Solar (Houston; www.tesserasolar.com) recently unveiled four, newly designed solar-power collection dishes at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility (Albuquerque, N.M.). The refined design of SunCatchers will be used in…