In The News
The Future of Safety Sensors is Here Now
Wearable sensors enhance CPI worker safety and help close the approaching skills gap For many years, sensors have been used in the chemical process industries (CPI) for many activities, including monitoring the health and safety of employees. In these applications,…
New glass electrolytes yield safer, more efficient batteries
A glassy solid-state electrolyte (SSE) developed by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin (UT; www.utexas.edu) will aid in the evolution of safer, longer-lasting rechargeable batteries. A major concern with the use of lithium- and sodium-ion batteries is the…
A pilot project to capture rainwater for wine production
A pilot project set up by the University of California Davis (UC Davis; Davis, Calif.; www.ucdavis.edu), GE Water & Process Technologies (Trevose, Pa.; www.gewater.com) and wine-industry service provider Winesecrets LLC (www.winesecrets.com) seeks to capture rainwater for use in wine production,…
Peltier refrigeration expands into untapped applications
When compared to traditional refrigeration cycles, Peltier (thermoelectric) technology has many benefits, including no moving parts and no hazardous refrigerant chemicals. However, it has not yet been widely adopted into large-scale industrial processes (due to poor efficiency, inability to scale…
This project aims for high-efficiency enzyme production
The European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program has awarded a grant to a consortium working to raise yields and lower costs of large-scale industrial enzymes. The grant will fund a three-year project to increase yields of an enzyme…
A new filter mesh with reduced erosion — by design
Porometric mesh is a new weave mesh designed by GKD-USA, Inc. (Cambridge, Md.; www.gkdusa.com) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations (photo), in a study aimed at reducing erosion and abrasion caused by sand in oil-and-gas pipelines. Porometric mesh has a…
Spinning miles of synthetic spider silk
An international team of scientists, led by senior researcher Anna Rising and professor Jan Johansson at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Karolinska Institute (both Stockholm, Sweden; www.slu.se and www.ki.se), has developed a process that makes it possible…
New technique simplifies doping for organic semiconductors
A new solution-based method for introducing doping into organic semiconductor films could simplify the manufacture of efficient single-layer photovoltaic cells and move them closer to a commercial reality. Beyond solar cells, the doping technique could be more broadly used in…
Business News — March 2017
Plant Watch AkzoNobel announces startup of bio-steam facility at Delfzijl plant February 13, 2017 — AkzoNobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) and utility company Eneco announced the startup of a bio-steam facility at AkzoNobel’s Delfzijl site in the Netherlands. Eneco…
Batch or continuous? This methodology can help making the decision
So far, there is no high-level evaluation that gives a simple guideline on the benefits and feasibility of converting a batch to a continuous process. Now a group from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR; Singapore; www.ices.a-star.edu.sg) has…