In The News
Reduce air consumption from AODD pumps with this technology
New technology developed for air-operated, double-diaphragm (AODD) pumps can reduce consumption of compressed air by up to 60% without electronic components, while maintaining the same flowrates. The reduced air consumption translates directly to lower energy usage. Developed by Wilden Pump…
Modified PU foam shows promise as sponge for soaking up oil spills
Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing; www.cas.ac.cn) have found a way to transform polyurethane (PU) foam into a sponge that is strongly water-repellent and oil-absorbing, making it suitable for soaking up chemicals and petroleum from spills. One of…
Inorganic membranes show promise to halve energy consumption in distillation
Japanese researchers from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki City; www.nedo.go.jp), Waseda University, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (JX_NOE) and five other companies along with five more universities have developed an inorganic membrane that enables…
Bio-Based Chemicals Gain Market Acceptance
As an industry sector, bio-based chemicals have seen significant expansion over the past year, with several commercial developments occurring in a group of four-carbon commodity chemicals, including succinic acid, butanols, butadiene and butanediol. While a host of technology-based companies have…
CNOOC selects Ineos Technologies process, and more business news
Plant Watch Sasol awards integrated complex contract to WorleyParsons July 11, 2013 — WorleyParsons Ltd. (North Sydney, Australia; www.worleyparsons.com) has been awarded a contract by Sasol North America, Inc. (Sasol) for an integrated gas-to-liquids (GTL) and ethane-cracker complex, which includes…
Electromagnetic separation technology applied to aquaculture
Technology originally developed for harvesting oil from algae has now been applied to sanitize water and remove ammonia from commercial aquaculture ponds. Electro Water Separation (EWS) technology, developed by OriginOil Technologies (Los Angeles, Calif.; www.originoil.com), applies pulses of tuned electromagnetic…
Linde to help commercialize an oil-from-algae process
Sapphire Energy, Inc. (San Diego, Calif.; www.sapphireenergy.com) and The Linde Group (Munich; www.linde.com) have signed an agreement, with a minimum span of five years, to commercialize Sapphire’s process for producing crude oil from algae. The agreement expands an existing partnership…
A solid way to eliminate contaminants from wastewater
CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship (Perth, Western Australia; www.csiro.au/MDU) has developed a method that uses hydrotalcite formation to simultaneously remove contaminants from mining and industrial wastewaters in a single step. Current wastewater-treatment processes typically produce lime-based slurries, often with large…
Desalination sans membranes
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin (www.utexas.edu) and the University of Marburg (Germany; www.uni-marburg.de) are developing a process, called electrochemically mediated seawater desalination, that promises to be an inexpensive way to desalinate small volumes of water. The patent-pending…
Lewa-Nikkiso acquires Geveke
Nikkiso Co. (Tokyo, Japan) the manufacturer of fluid control technologies, has acquired Geveke B.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), a sales company and system integrator of industrial pumps and compressors, as a strategic investment at this end of July 2013. Nikkiso is…