In The News
A New Mentality in Process Modeling
Predictive process models enable more efficient operations and higher-value products When they hear the words “process modeling,” some may envision an engineer sitting in front of a laptop waiting for a distillation column flowsheet to converge. While flowsheet simulations are…
Harvesting agricultural fertilizers from wastewater sludge
Recovery of the essential plant nutrient phosphorus from wastewater can be an effective way to reduce runoff into waterways while avoiding the need to obtain the element from mined minerals. While phosphorus recovery from wastewater effluent performs well, it is…
Benefits of Sophisticated Motor and Drive Technologies
New motors and drives provide energy efficiency and reliability in chemical applications Always on the lookout for ways to reduce downtime and energy costs, chemical processors are turning to advanced motors and drives to help achieve these goals. Sometimes as…
Scaleup for cellulose nanofiber production
Nippon Paper Industries Co. (NPI; Tokyo, Japan; www.nipponpapergroup.com) has installed the world’s largest facility of its kind for the commercial production of cellulose nanofiber (CNF). Located at its Ishinomaki Works in Miyagi Prefecture, the $16-million investment has a production capacity…
Low-cost solar collectors provide renewable process heat
The first pre-commercial demonstration has started for a system that can provide steam for industrial process heat using solar energy at prices lower than using natural gas. The technology uses solar thermal collectors to generate hot water, air or steam…
Silk-based batteries for medical implants
Researchers from the University of Wollongong (Australia; www.uow.edu.au), led by professor Gordon Wallace and Caiyun Wang, built a battery with electrodes and a solid electrolyte out of silk. Previous attempts at making such biodegradable, dissolvable batteries used natural, biocompatible materials…
Nanorod arrays as photocatalysts
Many ZnO@TiO2 core-shell nanorod arrays (the notation means ZnO is the core inside the TiO2 shell) with good photocatalytic activity have been designed and synthesized. There has been an increasing interest in the design and synthesis of those arrays to…
Plasma oxidation for making carbon fibers
Carbon fibers, an increasingly essential component for lightweight materials, are typically made from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in a three-step process consisting of oxidation/stabilization, carbonization and surface treatment/sizing. 4M Industrial Oxidation, LLC (Knoxville, Tenn.; www.4mio.com) intends to commercialize a technology to produce…
Business News – June 2017
Plant Watch Dow plans for significant U.S. growth with five-year investment strategy May 11, 2017 — The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) announced a five-year investment plan that includes expansion of Dow’s new TX-9 ethylene cracker through the addition…
A more efficient way to reduce emissions from nitric acid plants
Haldor Topsoe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) has recently introduced TertiNOx, a new catalyst for simultaneously reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) and oxides-of-nitrogen (NOx) emissions from the tailgas of nitric-acid production plants. The company estimates that this alternative to conventional abatement methods…