Strategies for extracting more distillate from petroleum to meet the growing demand for diesel fuel constituted a major theme of the recent annual meeting of the National Petrochemical and Petroleum Refiners Association (NPRA, Washington D.C.; www.npra.gov) in San Antonio, Tex.…
Cast parts, such as engine blocks, are typically made by pouring molten metal into so-called cores — sand-based molds that have internal passages for the component to be cast. Such casting cores are typically made by reacting sand with organic…
On March 31, U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.) Secretary Steven Chu announced $6 billion in new funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate environmental cleanup work and create jobs across 12 states. Projects identified for…
With the exception of Oslo-type crystallizers, the main commercial crystallizers are agitated systems that use an agitator [agitated tank or draft-tube baffle (DTB)] or a circulation pump [forced circulation (FC) crystallizers]. In such systems, however, large crystals become damaged by…
Many methods have been developed for the encapsulation of "active" materials within a carrier nanoparticle, such as a polymer. These composite structures can be used in many biomedical, cosmetics, and food processing applications for the controlled release of pharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals,…
Aqueous Recovery Resources, Inc. (ARR; Bedford Hill, NY; www.suparator.com), has developed the Suparator, an oil/water separation system that involves no moving parts or media, for low operational costs and minimal maintenance. The separator (diagram) is based on the Bernoulli effect,…
Cambrios Technologies Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.; www.cambrios.com) has formed a strategic partnership with Chisso Corp. (www.chisso.co.jp) and Sumitomo Corp. (both Tokyo; www.sumitomocorp.co.jp) for commercialization of Cambrios’ first product, ClearOhm coating material. Targeted for the liquid crystal display (LCD) market, ClearOhm is…
The American Society of Testing Materials (Conshohocken, Pa.; www.astm.org) has developed a new standard for measuring viscosity: ASTM D 7483-08, Determination of Dynamic and Kinematic Viscosity of Liquids by Oscillating Piston Viscometer (OPV). The new ASTM method is part of…
Arkema (Colomes, France; www.arkema.com) and hte (Heidelberg, Germany; www.hte-company.de) have successfully concluded a research collaboration aimed at identifying new catalysts for the conversion of glycerol — a byproduct of biodiesel production — to acrolein (2-propenal) and acrylic acid. The collaboration,…
Primary amines are made in high yield by a palladium-catalyzed allylic amination reaction developed by Shu Kobayashi, a chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo (Japan; www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp.). The reaction uses aqueous ammonia as the nitrogen source — the first time…