In The News
HF alkylation unit converted for solid-bed alkylation of LAB
In a first-of-its-kind endeavor, a hydrogen-fluoride-based alkylation unit producing linear alkyl benzene (LAB) is being converted into a solid-bed alkylation unit that employs UOP’s (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) Detal-Plus alkylation technology for LAB. LAB is used in the production of…
Making multifunctional windows
Concern with energy efficiency has increased the popularity of window glass coatings that control the amount of sunlight that passes through, as well as windows made of thin solar cells that can turn them into electricity generators. Now researchers from…
The commercial launch of 3-D-printed membranes
Last month, Nano Sun, a water technology start-up founded by a scientist from Nanyang Technological University (NTU; Singapore; www.ntu.edu.sg) launched a 3-D-printing facility to manufacture a new type of water-treatment membrane. Unlike conventional membrane-manufacturing processes, which use acids to make…
Chementator Briefs
TPA from PET bottles A chemical method previously developed for recovering monomers from polyester blend fabrics and textiles has now been adapted for use with waste plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The BCD Group (Cincinnati, Ohio; www.bcdinternational.com) developed…
A Closer Look at Pressure Relief
Understanding how to size and select pressure-relief devices is key to ensuring the safety of your facility Pressure-relief and pressure-regulating devices serve the critical purpose of protecting facilities, people and equipment from potentially harmful, even catastrophic overpressure situations. For this…
Low-cost solar thermal technology to be coupled with energy storage
Sunvapor Inc. (Livermore, Calif.; www.sunvapor.net) was awarded a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) last month to scale up its Green Parabolic Trough Collector, a solar thermal technology that cuts construction costs by half compared…
New LEDs offer improved properties
Flexible micro light-emitting diodes (LEDs) — a sub-100-µm light source for red, green and blue light — have become a strong candidate for the next-generation display due to their low power consumption, fast response, and flexibility. The previous micro-LED technology…
A push to upgrade naphthas into petrochemicals
Last month, MOL Group (Budapest, Hungary: www.mol.hu) entered into a strategic partnership with Inovacat (Amersfoort, the Netherlands; www.inovacat.com) to further upscale and commercialize Inovacat’s Gasolfin gasoline-to-olefins technology, which converts low-valued gasoline and naphthas into high-value propylene, butylene and BTX (benzene,…
Achema 2018 Review
Sustainability, digitalization and flexible production approaches emerged as major themes at the recent Achema 2018 event in Germany Attendees at June’s Achema (www.achema.de) 2018 trade show for the chemical process industries (CPI) received healthy doses of information on products, technologies…
Plant Watch: Business News for August 2018
Plant Watch BASF to expand global antioxidant production capacities July 10, 2018 — BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) plans to increase the global production capacity for its antioxidant Irganox 1010 by 40% with production expansion projects at its sites in…