In The News
Lower-cost sulfur-removal process for syngas goes commercial
An adsorbent-based, sulfur-removal process for synthesis gas (syngas) that lowers capital and operating costs compared to alternative methods of removing sulfur has completed pre-commercial testing and has achieved commercial status. The Warm-gas Desulfurization Process (WDP; diagram) has been under development…
Startup for a demonstration plant to process three metals
Australian Mines (Perth; https//:australianmines.com.au) has started operating a demonstration three metals (cobalt-nickel-scandium) processing plant that will process ore from the company’s Sconi and Flemington projects into commercial-grade samples. The company’s flagship Sconi project, located in the mining center of Greenvale…
Chementator Briefs
RE-free magnets Tetrataenite (L10-FeNi) is a promising alternative to rare-earth- (RE) based magnets due to its favorable magnetic properties, such as a high uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and saturation magnetic-flux density. Compared to other non-RE alternatives, such as Nd-Fe-B and Sm-Fe-N,…
Business News February 2018
Plant Watch Asahi Kasei to increase global production capacity for LIB separators January 11, 2018 — Asahi Kasei Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) will increase production capacity for lithium-ion battery (LIB) separators at its plants in North Carolina and Shiga, Japan.…
Catalytic advances enable methane conversion without coking
The large supply of unconventional natural gas from shale deposits in the U.S. has increased attention on utilizing small alkanes to synthesize higher-value chemicals and fuels, while avoiding thermal steam-cracking, which is energy-intensive. Attempts to catalytically convert methane, ethane and…
Placing Data Analytics in the Hands of Engineers
The field of data analytics is evolving quickly, and an increasing number of tools are being designed with chemical engineers in mind Big data, smart devices, Internet of Things (IoT) — these are terms heard more and more frequently in…
Size Reduction: Improving the Daily Grind
New milling, grinding and size-reduction equipment helps processors obtain better efficiencies and develop new products Although milling and size-reduction equipment may be mature — some technologies date back to the 1800s — evolving needs of chemical processors, including the demand…
Progress towards aluminum-ion batteries
Compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries, aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs) offer significant advantages, such as non-flammability, and a high capacity of the metallic Al anode. However, due to inadequate cathodic performance, especially capacity, high-rate capability and cycle life, AlBs cannot compete with…
Biomass fractionation and conversion technology to be scaled up
Plans are underway for a demonstration-scale facility in France that will convert non-food lignocellulosic biomass into raw materials for bio-based chemicals and animal feed products, such as feed for fish farming. The process, developed by Arbiom (Research Triangle Park, N.C.;…
New process converts refinery offgas into gasoline
A process technology that upgrades offgas from petroleum refineries has been commercialized by Siluria Technologies Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.; www.siluria.com) and Wood (Aberdeen, Scotland; www.woodplc.com). According to Siluria, the new Modus technology’s ability to chemically convert refinery offgases into high-quality…