Mobile Navigation

In The News

Member Exclusive

Tunable Enzymes and the Leaner, Greener CPI

Enzymes, nature’s catalysts, have been used in industrial processes for centuries. Now, they are coming into their own in the chemical process industries (CPI). As green chemistry becomes an industry mantra, pressures to reduce product cost, facility carbon footprint and…

Member Exclusive

CO2-capture project is largest to use calcium-looping technology

A cement plant in Taiwan has been retrofitted with the largest CO2-capture plant to use calcium-looping technology to date. The project, run by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI; Hsinchu, Taiwan; www.itri.org), demonstrates ITRI’s high-efficiency calcium-looping technology (Heclot) at a…

Member Exclusive

This new material repels oil and water

Meanwhile, a new class of highly fluorinated polymers is being developed at the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Karlsruhe, Germany; www.kit.edu) that repels both water and oil. Last month, IMT was awarded €2.85 million funding…

Member Exclusive

Recently Published Books January 2015

Voids in Materials: From Unavoidable Defects to Designed Cellular Materials. By Gary M. Gladysz and Krishan K. Chawla. Elsevier Inc., 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02144. Web: elsevier.com. 2014. 214 pages. $175.00. How Safe is Safe Enough? Technological Risks, Real…

Member Exclusive

Who’s Who

Greene’s Energy Group LLC (Houston), a provider of testing services, equipment rentals and specialty services for the oil-and-gas industry, names Robert Fraser regional business-development manager, based in Dubai. Philippe Sauquet becomes president of refining and chemicals, and a member of…

Member Exclusive

Bayer MaterialScience inaugurates TDI plant in Dormagen; and more latest news

PLANT WATCH Bayer MaterialScience inaugurates TDI plant in Dormagen December 9, 2014 — At its site in Dormagen, Germany, Bayer MaterialScience AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.materialscience.bayer.de) has started up a new production plant for toluene diisocyanate (TDI). Valued at around €250…

Member Exclusive

Solar-electric hybrid furnace could enable improved magnesium processing

A new high-temperature reactor that can draw power from conventional electricity as well as from a solar-thermal heating system could enable a cleaner, lower-energy route to lightweight magnesium alloys. The custom-made reactor was built by thermal processing equipment company Harper…

Member Exclusive

Generating power from kerosene and ammonia

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Tsukuba City, Japan; www.aist.go.jp), in collaboration with Tohoku University (www.tohoku.ac.jp), succeeded in demonstrating what is said to be the world’s first ammonia-fired power. The achievement was carried out in a…

Member Exclusive

This ‘superomniphobic’ texture repels all liquids

Researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA; www.ucla.edu) Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have created what is claimed to be the first surface texture that can repel all liquids, no matter what material the…

Member Exclusive

Direct fermentation to produce propylene

Global Bioenergies (Evry, France; www.global-bioenergies.com) says that last month it developed a proprietary strain of microorganism that directly produces propylene by the fermentation of glucose. The company claims this is the first time propylene has been produced entirely by a…