Last month, the first compact plant to produce synthetic fuels from solar energy and CO2 extracted from air was commissioned in Finland, as part of the Soletair project, which is coordinated by the Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT: Espoo;…
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Germany; www.kit.edu) is cooperating with research institutions and industry partners to develop a novel process chain for the synthesis of methanol, either without the use of fossil resources or by reusing CO2 from undesired…
Insights about complex CPI workforce issues come from a variety of sources, including survey data on corporate attitudes, salary and diversity The chemical process industries (CPI) continue to face an interconnected web of workforce challenges, including the retirement wave of…
A group of organizations, lead by the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI; San Antonio, Tex.; www.swri.org) has begun a project to design a power-generation pilot plant featuring a flameless, pressurized oxyfuel combustion technology that allows the capture of 100% of the…
Modern technology tackles CPI’s air-emissions concerns Air emissions monitoring and control is a major concern for all chemical processors, but the product being manufactured, the process used to make it, the resulting byproducts and pollutants, and the location of a…
Starch is essential for imparting strength to corrugated cardboard boxes, but millions of tons of starch are lost in cardboard recycling processes annually because conditions are ripe for bacteria to thrive, and the microorganisms degrade starch by converting it to…
A new process for making long glass fiber polypropylene (LGF-PP) concentrates (glass-fiber-containing plastic pellets) allows a higher glass-fiber content than is possible with conventional processes. Plastics maker Trinseo (Berwyn, Pa.; www.trinseo.com) has developed the process, which is capable of making…
Cotton dyes Cotton Inc. (Cary, N.C.; www.cottoninc.com) and Archroma (Reinach, Switzerland) have collaborated to present what they believe is the first ever dye derived from cotton-plant residues. EarthColors is Archroma’s method of creating dyes in warm, ternary shades from natural…
In response to water scarcity and declining grades of ore, the mineral processing industry has been investigating ways to improve processes, such as bioleaching to deal with increased impurity concentrations in process streams. Advantages of bioleaching for low-grade ores, such…
Scientists at the U.S. DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Tenn.; www.ornl.gov) have developed an electrochemical process that directly produces ethanol from CO2. The researchers used a catalyst consisting of copper nanoparticles embedded in carbon spikes, and applied voltage to…