Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into a fuel is an attractive way to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and there are many projects underway around the world to find ways of converting CO2 into chemicals, such as H2, CH4, ethanol,…
High-surface-area beads filled with microbes are being used to reduce biosolids in wastewater. In one case, Drylet LLC (San Francisco, Calif.; www.drylet.com) has developed engineered porous particles that provide large surface areas (the equivalent of 12 football fields of surface…
A biodiesel fuel blend known as B20 contains oils derived from waste coffee grounds, and will be used to power mass transit buses in London. The fuel is made through a partnership among bio-bean ltd. (London, U.K.; www.bio-bean.com), which has…
Foam dyeing, a new technology for dyeing cotton yarn that is being applied to denim production for the first time, eliminates the use of several chemicals and can reduce water use by up to 90% compared to traditional dyeing. The…
Landfill leachate and other challenging wastewaters incur rising treatment and disposal costs. Technology developed by Heartland Water Technology, Inc. (Hudson, Mass.; www.heartlandtech.com) can lower costs for treating wastewater by slashing wastewater volumes by 95% or more, using waste heat as…
H2SO4 Catalyst BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has introduced a new catalyst for making sulfuric acid. The cesium-based O4-115 Quattro catalyst has a unique geometrical shape — a combination of four strands — leading to a 30% greater catalytic surface…
In boilers, silicates can volatilize with the generated steam and then form silicate glass on turbine blades, causing an imbalance. Therefore, the concentration of silicates in boiler circuits must be reduced to below 0.5 parts per million (ppm). The conventional…
A new adsorption-based technology can separate ozone from oxygen in O3-generating systems, allowing recycling of unreacted O2. In corona-discharge O3 generation, O2 molecules are split by passage through an electric field to create free oxygen atoms, which quickly combine with…
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Ga. Tech; Atlanta; www.gatech.edu) have demonstrated a precision-machining technique to manufacture an entire pumping loop from materials that can withstand temperatures as high as 1,400–1,600°C. These materials are typically thought to be too…
Polymer-electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are promising devices for clean power generation in automotive, stationary and portable applications. Up to now, the proton exchange membranes (PEMs) used in PEFCs have been based on perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomers (for example, Nafion). However,…