Chementator
Chementator briefs
Desalination Recently, Formosa Petrochemical Corp. (FPCC; Mailiao, Taiwan; www.fpcc.com.tw) commissioned IDE Technologies (Kadima, Israel; www.ide-tech.com) to build a desalination plant in Yunlin County, Taiwan that will be the first large-scale application for IDE’s high-purity boron-removal process. The three-step process combines…
A probe that tests galvanizing kettles at high temperatures
To provide corrosion protection and long life, steel products are galvanized by immersion into kettles containing molten zinc. These galvanizing kettles need to be checked periodically to monitor rates of corrosion in order to avoid a catastrophic spillage of molten…
A new zeolite catalyst promises to significantly improve naphtha cracking
Chiyoda Corp. (Yokohama, www.chiyoda-corp.com) has been working on a new naphtha cracking process with the aim of producing more propylene and consuming less energy than existing naphtha thermal-cracking methods. The company has recently developed a new catalyst based on iron-…
A ‘greener’ more sustainable route to trimethylgallium
Last month, the Precious Metals Chemistry business unit of Umicore AG & Co. KG (Hanau-Wolfgang, Germany; www.pmc.umicore.com) inaugurated its production unit for making trimethylgallium (TMGa) and triethylgallium (TEGa). The new facility uses a new, patented production process to make these…
A new catalyst for making methane from CO2 and H2
The Sabatier reaction, in which H2 and CO2 react at temperatures of 300–400°C in the presence of a nickel catalyst, or an alumina-supported ruthenium catalyst, is one way to reduce CO2 into methane. Until now, however, it has been difficult…
Make more from biomass with iron
Nippon Shokubai Co. (Osaka and Tokyo, Japan; www.shokubai.co.jp) has jointly developed a new process for biomass utilization in collaboration with professor Yuichi Kita at Kobe University (www.kobe-u.ac.jp). The process is highly efficient for decomposing lignocellulose into a group of water-soluble…
A first commercial step towards on-site ammonia production
A new company — Tsubame BHB Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; www.tsubame-bhb.co.jp) — has been established to commercialize the world’s first on-site production of ammonia for supplying amino-acid synthesis, fermentation materials and fertilizers. The company — a joint venture of Ajinomoto…
Low-cost water treatment uses CO2 to remove particles without membranes
Researchers at Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.; www.princeton.edu) have developed a water treatment technique that injects carbon dioxide gas into a stream of water to separate suspended particles that would be difficult to remove by sedimentation or by microbes. The system,…
Responsive coatings lead to stronger 3-D-printed parts
Additive manufacturing (3-D printing) has quickly gained popularity, due in part to its potential for rapidly creating customized parts. However, one inherent limitation of additive manufacturing — specifically the high-speed fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique — is the potential for…
A continuous biotreatment process that degrades phenol in wastewater
Although there are several ways to reduce the phenol concentration in industrial effluent, they each have drawbacks. Chemical treatment, such as adsorption and stripping, is fast but expensive, and the chemical degradation of phenol leads to the formation of toxic…