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Convert wasted natural gas to liquid fuels

A newly launched technology known as Flare Buster is capable of converting natural gas streams, such as flare gas and stranded gas from remote sites, to synthesis gas (syngas) and then to synthetic crude oil via a Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis…

Air Liquide signs longterm contract with major petroleum group in China; and more business news for the CPI

Plant Watch   BASF and Sinopec inaugurate world-scale isononanol plant in Maoming October 12, 2015 — BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; Beijing; www.sinopec.com) have inaugurated a world-scale isononanol (INA) plant in Maoming, China.…

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Streamline turnarounds with faster catalyst cooling

A new process technology from Aggreko North America plc (Houston; www.us.aggreko.com) aims to make turnarounds at petroleum refineries more cost-effective by decreasing the time required for catalyst cooling. The catalyst materials used for refining operations, such as hydrotreating, hydrocracking and…

This chemical-free disinfection media requires no power

Surface-modified ceramic materials have been developed to disinfect water and air and other fluids without requiring additional chemicals or energy input. Developed by Claire Technologies (Raleigh, N.C.; www.claire-tech.com), the disinfection media consist of silica- and alumina-based pellets that have been…

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CPI Salaries Hold Steady; Workforce Solutions Expand

Conditions in the U.S. CPI continue to support high salaries for engineers and skilled technical workers, but conditions also continue to sustain ongoing workforce challenges Engineering expertise and technical know-how continue to be in high demand in the chemical process…

Air Pollution Monitoring and Control: EPA Bumps Up Enforcement Efforts

Tighter enforcement requires up-to-date monitoring and control equipment With stricter emissions regulations on the horizon and with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov) actively enforcing ones, the chemical process industries (CPI) can not sit back and relax.…

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‘Switchable solvent’ technology is a promising development for advancing forward osmosis

Forward osmosis (FO), whereby a concentrated salt solution is used to “draw” water through a membrane from a less-concentrated salt solution (via osmotic pressure), has the advantage over reverse osmosis (RO) in that high pressures, with the associated pumps and…

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Liquid-infused surfaces move toward commercial applications

A set of technologies that create an immobilized thin layer of lubricant on a solid surface, thus enabling highly repellent, omniphobic surfaces, has moved closer to commercial application. Known as slippery, liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), the technologies can be applied…

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A booster bed for Circulating Fluidized-bed Combustors

The efficiency of circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) combustors can be significantly increased by substituting conventional bed material with an ilmenite-based bed material, according to researchers at Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden; www.chalmers.se). Conventional CFB boilers use silica sand to evenly…

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Chementator Briefs

CO2 to formic acid Professor Yutaka Amao and colleagues at Osaka City University (Osaka City, Japan; www.osaka-cu.ac.jp/en) have enhanced the photocatalytic efficiency for the conversion of CO2 to formic acid by up to 20 times. The efficiency boost was achieved…