A new technology for treating cooling tower water is designed to control scale formation and provide corrosion protection without using phosphorus-containing compounds. Phosphorus from wastewater discharge is known to be a major factor in fueling algae blooms and excessive aquatic…
Currently, the active components of most pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals are synthesized by multiple batch reactions, in which all starting materials are mixed in reaction vessels and the desired compounds are extracted and purified after each reaction has finished. Such…
Last month, Johnson Matthey Process Technologies (JMPT; London, U.K.; www.matthey.com) and Rennovia Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.; www.rennovia.com) successfully started-up a fully integrated mini-plant for production of glucaric acid from glucose using jointly developed technology. The mini-plant is located at the…
It has been known for a long time that sulfonated active-carbon acid can catalyze both esterification and transesterification to produce biodiesel fuels from oils with high acid value without pretreatment. However, the separation of such catalysts requires filtration or centrifugation,…
First FDI adopter With its Field Information Manager software, ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) has become the first host company to adopt new field-device integration (FDI) technology. The FDI platform offered by the FieldComm Group (Austin, Tex., www.fieldcommgroup.com) brings together for…
Plant Watch Asahi Kasei to construct production facility for cellulose nonwoven fibers July 9, 2015 — Asahi Kasei Fibers Corp. (Osaka, Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/fibers) will construct a new production facility for cellulose nonwoven fabric in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan. The new plant’s…
The research group of professor Ken-ichi Fujita at Kyoto University (Kyoto, www.h.kyoto-u.ac.jp) has developed an efficient catalytic system for the production of hydrogen from an aqueous methanol solution. The process uses a new, anionic iridium complex bearing a functional bipyridonate…
A new concept for large-scale redox-flow batteries (RFB) for energy-storage applications has been developed by ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Dortmund, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com). The system is based on the oxidation and reduction of vanadium ions (diagram, top) for either storing electrical…
Researchers from the University of Tasmania (Hobart, Australia; www.utas.edu.au) and the University of Barcelona (Spain; www.ub.edu) have found a method to drastically speed up capillary electrophoresis (CE) for measuring pKa values (acid dissociation constants). This is especially valuable for pharmaceutical…
Advanced sensors help reduce downtime, increase efficiency and safety As more and more advanced electronics, mechanics and software are employed within sensors, tasks that were previously managed by control systems or other tools for data aggregation are now being handled,…