Environmental regulations and high energy costs are driving technology advances that make plants cleaner and more efficient For some, the production of chlorine and caustic has been considered a nasty business: not only are the products dangerous if not handled…
JFE Steel Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.jfe-steel.co.jp) plans to build a pilot plant for using ferro coke in the ironmaking process at its Fukuyama area of West Japan Works, with support from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO;…
Plant Watch AkzoNobel opens paint manufacturing facility in the U.K. September 12, 2017 — Akzo Nobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) has opened its €100-million paints production plant in Ashington, U.K. The factory will be capable of doubling AkzoNobel’scurrent U.K.…
From additives to polymers to coatings to 3-D printables, new materials improve performance High-performance materials are intended to make consumer goods, industry and the world, in general, function better. Inventive performance materials can be found in all categories, from additives…
Although polystyrene has been adopted into a large number of end products, it remains one of the least-recycled plastic waste streams — an estimated 95% of polystyrene materials are discarded after a single use. Employing a proprietary thermo-catalytic process, GreenMantra…
A newly developed aluminum-cerium alloy is exceptionally stable at high temperatures, and is highly corrosion-resistant, allowing its use in components for advanced engines and for other aerospace, automotive and power-generation applications. Co-developed by Eck Industries (Manitowoc, Wis.; www.eckindustries.com) and Oak…
A liquid metal membrane with liquid gallium (Ga) sandwiched between two porous silicon carbide supports offers a pathway to improve the currently available membranes of solid palladium (Pd) metal for separating hydrogen after the steam reforming of methane. Pd metal…
Engineers at Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) have commercialized an improved version of the company’s Cleanfire ThruPort oxy-fuel burner for avoiding downtime during repairs and extending the lifetime of air-fuel regenerative furnaces in glass-making plants. The company’s original Cleanfire…
Under mechanical stress, carbon-reinforced epoxy-resin composite materials can experience cracking and de-lamination at the junctures between layers of material, where the composites are resin-rich. Placing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) into the inter-laminar regions can toughen the composite and prevent…
Researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST; Thuwal, Saudi Arabia; www.kaust.edu.sa) have developed a metal-organic framework (MOF) material that can regulate the humidity levels within the “window” established by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and…