Click here for full pdf version of this article - includes all graphs, charts, tables, and author information Construction to begin on a large solar plant in Spain Thanks to a €171-million financing deal, construction can begin on what is…
Thanks to a €171-million financing deal, construction can begin on what is claimed to be the world’s first utility-grade solar power plant with central tower and salt receiver technology. When the so-called Gemasolar plant — located in Fuentes de Andalucia,…
Mitsunori Shimura and colleagues at the R&D Center of Chiyoda Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.chiyoda.co.jp) have developed a new catalyst for producing a synthesis gas (syngas; hydrogen and carbon monoxide) from steam reforming of methane. The catalyst consists of precious metals…
Lurgi GmbH (Frankfurt, Germany; www.lurgi.com) is building a pilot plant to demonstrate the viability of its three-stage bioliq process for producing liquid fuels from biomass. The pilot plant — an entrained-flow gasifier for the production of synthesis gas — will…
For separating two components with similar volatilities, extractive distillation is typically used, whereby a high-boiling, non-volatile solvent is added to "break the azeotrope" — a process that is both energy intensive and often involves the use of hazardous solvents. In…
Ultrasound has been applied, with limited success, for the remediation of contaminated soil. Up to now, the approach has been to first extract the contaminant from the soil into a liquid, which is then passed through a sono-reactor where the…
In a so-called thermoacoustic engine, researchers from the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN; Petten, Netherlands; www.ecn.nl) have achieved a record efficiency in the conversion of heat to sound, improving the existing record of 41% to 48% of the…
In late 2009, Microbia PE, Inc. (Lexington, Mass.; www.microbia-pe.com) will begin commercialization of its initial carotenoid products. Microbia plans to produce β-carotene, astaxanthin, zeaxanthin, cathaxanthin and lutein — all five carotenoid products that currently have significant commercial value. These carotenoids…
Last month, Uralchem OJSC (Moscow, Russia; www.uralchem.com) started production of a new fertilizer, called ASN 32:0:0:5, at Kirov-Chepetsk Chemical Works, OSJ. Granules of the new ASN formulation have a gradient structure with a high concentration of ammonium sulfate on the…
New MMA process Last month, the world’s first plant to produce methyl methacrylate (MMA) using the Alpha process of Lucite International Group Ltd., (Southampton, UK; www.lucite.com) started up. The 120,000-m.t./yr (metric ton per year) plant is located on Jurong Island…