In The News
Stamicarbon to provide technology to SOCAR
Stamicarbon B.V. (Sittard, The Netherlands; www.stamicarbon.com) , the Licensing and IP Center of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A, has signed contracts with Samsung Engineering for a urea synthesis plant and a urea granulation plant for The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic…
ThyssenKrupp to strengthen electrolysis business through planned JV
ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Hamburgh, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp.com) has reached an agreement with De Nora (Milan, Italy) to establish a joint venture (JV). The companies intend to combine their engineering, procurement and construction activities for electrolysis plants under the name ThyssenKrupp…
Solvay to build large-scale alkoxylation facility in Texas
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) says it will build and operate a large-scale alkoxylation unit in Pasadena, Texas, at an integrated industrial facility of LyondellBasell's Equistar Chemicals affiliate, in order to serve a growing North American market. Equistar will supply…
First commercial-scale high-solids anaerobic digester in North America
Harvest Power (Waltham, Mass.; www.harvestpower.com) recently began operation of the first commercial-scale, high-solids anaerobic digester in North America. The facility produces biogas from food waste and yard waste in Richmond, B.C., Canada. “The anaerobic digester employs essentially the same biology…
Bacteria engineered to make gasoline
Short-chain hydrocarbons have been produced for the first time by microbial fermentation by a research team from the Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST; Daejeon, South Korea, www.kaist.ac.kr), led by…
A new catalyst for low-cost production of biodiesel fuel
Daiki Axis Co. (Matsuyama City, Japan; www.daiki-axis.com) has developed a new solid catalyst for biodiesel fuel production under the support of New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) under the authority of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry…
A new proppant
Last month, Carbo Ceramics Inc. (Houston; www.carboceramics.com) introduced KryptoSphere, an ultra-conductive, high-strength proppant technology designed to maximize and sustain hydrocarbon flow at high closure stresses for the life of the well. Developed in response to a request from a major…
Dandelion rubber
Last month saw the start of a five-year joint research project to extract rubber from dandelion plants to make tires. In collaboration with Continental AG (Hannover, Germany; www.continental-tires.com), the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME; Aachen, Germany;…
Transporting more H2 gas
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has developed a new storage technology that will enable a much more efficient transport of larger amounts of hydrogen. The new solution works at a higher pressure of 500 bars (7,250 psi) and uses…
42nd Kirkpatrick Award announced
Last month at the ChemInnovations Conference and Exhibition (Galveston, Tex.; September 25–26), Chemical Engineering ( CE) had the pleasure of honoring this year’s finalists and the winner of the 2013 Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award, a biennial prize that the…