In The News
Total starts up lubricants plant in Singapore; and more business news
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…
Smarter Sensors for a Smoother Process
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,…
Water Takes the Stage at Achema 2015
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…
Making hydrogen from methanol
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…
Commercial debut slated for redox flow batteries
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…
A faster way to determine pKa values
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…
Ethanol-based fuel cells get a boost with a new catalyst
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…
Renewed Optimism in the Pulp-and-Paper Industry
Innovations and the utilization of byproducts are helping this sector to thrive in difficult times The pulp-and-paper industry has gone through difficult times. The rise of electronic media, competition from substitute materials and environmental concerns have caused thousands of mill…
Wacker starts up new production plant for specialty monomers; and more business news
Plant Watch Sumitomo announces battery-separator capacity expansion, new plant in Korea June 10, 2015 — Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Tokyo; www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp) plans to more than double its production capacity for lithium-ion secondary battery separators at a site in Japan. In addition,…
High-performance polymers in the spotlight
Improvements in existing materials and the development of new ones are helping to meet the demands of challenging applications As the need for stronger, more durable and lighter-weight materials increases, the demand for high-performance plastics and polymers continues to grow.…