In The News
Plasma-modified CNTs show promise for water purification
An international team of researchers claims to have developed carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes with an ultrahigh specific-adsorption capacity for salt that is two orders of magnitude higher than that found in current activated-carbon-based water-treatment systems. The team includes researchers from…
KIT makes ‘gasoline’ for the first time
Last month, the synthesis stage of the bioliq (biomass to liquid Karlsruhe) pilot plant produced gasoline for the first time at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Germany; www.kit.edu). The achievement is a milestone in that all stages of the…
Capture realtime images of gas leaks with this technology
New gas-cloud imaging technology from Rebellion Photonics (Houston; www.rebellionphotonics.com) monitors facilities for gas leaks and is capable of imaging chemical releases in realtime, identifying and quantifying gas clouds over large sections of a facility (photo). The company’s technology aims to…
A new material for large-scale energy storage devices
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU; Canberra; www.anu.edu.au), and the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia; www.unsw.edu.au) claim to have obtained a temperature- and frequency-independent colossal permittivity (CP) material with a low dielectric loss, making it strikingly superior…
Clariant opens new innovation center in Frankfurt
Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) is today officially opening its new €100-million Clariant Innovation Center (CIC) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The company’s new global hub for Research & Development (R&D) is based at the Industriepark Höchst. It will be the…
Clariant plans to divest Leather Services Business to Stahl
Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) plans to sell its Leather Services business to Stahl Holdings B.V. (Waalwijk, the Netherlands; www.stahl.com), which is majority-owned by Wendel Group. Stahl is a Dutch company providing high quality chemicals, dyes and coatings for leather and…
World’s largest SNG plant goes onstream in China
Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) says that Qinghua, the largest substitute natural gas (SNG) plant ever built in the world was successfully started in the city of Yining, located in Xinjiang, a region in the northwestern part of China.…
BASF obtains exclusive rights to market magnetocaloric materials
BASF New Business GmbH (Luswigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has entered into an agreement with the Dutch Technology Foundation (STW; Utrecht; www.stw.nl), Delft University of Technology (www.tudelft.nl) and the University of Amsterdam (www.uva.nl) for licenses on the basic patents for magnetocaloric materials…
Evonik starts up new production facility in Shanghai
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has opened a new production facility for organic specialty surfactants in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) in Shanghai, China. The new facility has an annual capacity of around 80,000 metric tons. The investment…
Honeywell to build new production facility in China
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) says it will establish a new manufacturing campus in Zhangjiagang, China, to support growing demand in Asia for energy technology and advanced materials produced by its Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT; Morris Township, N.J.) business. The initial phase…