On May 9, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels surpassed 400 ppm in Mauna Loa, Hawaii for the first time since measurements began there in 1958. This concentration is well above the 280 ppm levels occurring prior to the Industrial Revolution of…
On the heels of its successful scaleup of bio-butanol, Cobalt is looking for pathways to use that molecule as a building block for other products. The company has announced plans to build the first bio-butadiene plant in Asia. Projected to…
Freestanding nanowires exhibit ultrahigh elastic-strain limits (of up to 7%) and yield strengths. However, it has been difficult to exploit their properties in bulk composites, due to the mismatch between the elasticity of the nanowires and the elasticity of the…
Plant Watch Uhde Inventa-Fischer to build commercial-scale Nofia plant June 12, 2013 — Uhde Inventa-Fischer AG (Berlin, Germany and Domat/Ems, Switzerland; www.uhde-inventa-fischer.com) has won a contract to build the world’s first commercial-scale plant for production of Nofia, a flame retardant…
Squalane, an emollient used in cosmetics, will be the first product of a biotechnology pilot plant now being started up by Nucelis Inc. (San Diego, Calif.; www.nucelis.com), a spin-off from Cibus (also of San Diego). The plant will use Cibus’…
NEDO and Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo, www.hitachi.com) have developed a new combustion technology that could reduce the emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) to below 10 ppm without the addition of diluents. As part of the CCS-IGCC project (carbon capture and…
ODC for Cl2 production Last month, ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund; www.uhde.eu) and Bayer MaterialScience AG (BMS; Leverkusen, both Germany; www.bayermaterialscience.com) commercially launched — worldwide — the oxygen depolarized cathode (ODC) technology, which BMS and ThyssenKrupp Uhde/UhdeNora developed to improve…
Borealis AG (Vienna, Austria; www.borealisgroup.com) says it has fully acquired GPN SA from the Total Group. GPN S.A. is France’s largest nitrogen fertilizer manufacturer. Borealis is already active in nitrogen fertilizers in Central Europe, as well as in France following…
In April development tests, Cobalt Technologies (Cobalt; Mountain View, Calif; www.cobalttech.com) produced n -butanol at the fermentation scale of 100 m3 per run, demonstrating lower production cost than butanol produced from petroleum. This represents production that is a factor of…
Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso) and CMPC Celulose Riograndense S.A. (CMPC) have finalized the agreement, according to which Metso will supply the key technology to CMPC's Guaíba II pulp line in Brazil. The total value of the project is around…