Large supermarkets routinely waste 500 lb of food daily from past-due produce, deli and meat scraps and other sources. A new process developed by California Safe Soil (CSS; McClellan, Calif.; www.calsafesoil.com) converts the nutrient-rich waste food into a liquid fertilizer…
For a long time, it has been believed that the crystallization of zeolites is, by nature, a very slow process. The hydrothermal synthesis of zeolites is normally performed batchwise, requiring crystallization times on the order of days. Now, Toru Wakihara…
Two Australian companies — Australian Vanadium Ltd. (AVL; www.australianvanadium.com.au) and TNG Ltd. (both Perth; www.tngltd.com.au) — are now able to produce commercial-grade vanadium electrolyte for use in vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRFBs). Those batteries are increasingly gaining favor, primarily for grid-scale…
Researchers from the group of professor Ikuya Yamada at Osaka Prefecture University (Osaka, Japan; www.osakafu-u.ac.jp), in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (Hyogo; www.spring8.or.jp) and Fuji Die Co. (Tokyo; www.fujidie.co.jp), have synthesized for the first…
The release of silver from industrial wastewater has caused serious environmental problems. Many methods have been developed to remove silver ions from industrial wastewater, including chemical precipitation, ion exchange, electrolysis, replacement, membrane and reverse osmosis. Several adsorbents have been used…
A new commercial manufacturing process for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) produces tubes in the range of 1–10 mm in length (5–12-nm dia.), two orders of magnitude longer than currently available CNTs, which typically have lengths from 5–20µm. “Despite attractive mechanical and…
Gas Innovations (La Porte, Tex.; www.gasinnovations.com) has signed a 15-year, pay-per-use agreement with Haldor Topsøe A/S (Topsøe; Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) for a second on-site carbon-monoxide production unit, using Topsøe’s electrolytic Carbon Monoxide solution (eCOs) technology. The first eCOs unit in…
Bio foam control Last month, Novozymes A/S (Bagsvaerd, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) introduced Fermax, an enzyme protease that prevents foam development during the sugarcane ethanol fermentation process, while delivering improved control and replacing chemicals. For an average size plant, trialing partners experienced…
Scandium International Mining Corp. (Sparks, Nev.; www.scandiummining.com) is about to become the first company to achieve production from a primary scandium mine, with its project near the small town of Nyngan, New South Wales, Australia. The production of scandium from…
Demand for carbon fiber (CF), which can be used to make strong, lightweight composite materials for improving vehicle fuel economy and wind-power generation, has been growing. However, widespread use of these advanced composites has been limited by the high production…