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…
Hideki Abe and colleagues at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS, Tsukuba City, Japan; www.nims.go.jp), in collaboration with the Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (GREEN) and Tohoku University, have developed a new catalyst…
Researchers, led by professor Mingwei Chen at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR) of Tohoku University (Sendai City, Japan; www.wpi-aimr.tohoku.ac.jp), have developed a material that efficiently generates steam by solar heating. In laboratory trials using simulated solar radiation, the…
Integral Technology (Canton, Mich.; www.electriplast.com) has developed bipolar plates made from its electrically conductive plastic that can be used to reduce the space required for 12- and 24-V batteries, and virtually eliminate the need for lead metal in traditional lead-acid…
In an industrial-scale demonstration, a technology designed to lower NOx emissions has also boosted energy efficiency, according to developer ClearSign Combustion Corp. (Seattle, Wash.; www.clearsign.com). In addition to keeping NOx emissions at 5 ppm or below in industrial burners, ClearSign’s…
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, China; www.cas.cn) and Fuzhou University (Fuzhou, China; www.fzu.edu.cn), led by the Academy’s Prof Qian Liu, have reported a new method for high-throughput, sensitive, and rapid screening of low-mass hazardous compounds in complex…
Nanoscale iron catalysts, designed for industrial chemical applications, have been validated in commercial ammonia-production reactors in China. According to manufacturer QuantumSphere, Inc. (QSI; Santa Ana, Calif.; www.qsinano.com), incorporation of the nanocatalysts resulted in a 10–15% increase in ammonia production rate…
The emphasis on water management at Achema 2015 indicates the critical nature of water to all industry sectors as the CPI expand and evolve In June, chemical engineers from around the world convened in Frankfurt am Main, Germany for Achema…
IHI Corp. (IHI; Tokyo, www.ihi.co.jp) has commissioned its first prototype Twin IHI Gasifier (TIGAR) plant, which IHI designed and built at the Kujang Factory of PT Pupuk Indonesia Holding Co., Indonesia’s largest state-owned fertilizer company, 75 km southeast of Jakarta.…
Two families of newly developed products from specialty chemical maker Solenis (Wilmington, Del.; www.solenis.com) — a portfolio of fermentation aids and scale inhibitors — have the potential to improve the production of bioethanol and related fermentation processes. Solenis fermentation aids…