Ken-ichi Tominaga and colleagues at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Tsukuba, Japan; www.aist.go.jp) have developed a hybrid catalyst system that can be used to convert cellulose into levulinic acid. The catalyst consists of two types…
Detection of extremely small quantities of dangerous or hazardous substances is important in many areas, including national security, safety of public utilities and radiation prevention. Several analytical methods have been developed using structural, functional and electronic properties of nanomaterials. In…
A new and inexpensive way to produce TiFe — an alloy with potential as a material for reversibly storing hydrogen — has been developed by the research groups of professors Zenji Horita and Etsuo Akiba at Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan;…
Capacitive desalination, in which salt ions are electrically removed from saltwater, has been researched for decades as a potentially cheaper alternative to energy-intensive reverse osmosis (RO) and distillation, but so far its application has been limited to waters with very…
China Petrochemical International Ltd. (Sinopec International), Sinopec Sichuan Vinylon Works (SVW) and Davy Process Technology (Davy; London, England; www.davyprotech.com), a wholly owned Johnson Matthey subsidiary, are pleased to announce the acceptance of a 771,000 metric ton (m.t.) per year methanol…
ThyssenKrupp Polysius has won a contract from PT Holcim Indonesia Tbk., Jakarta, to build a second cement plant near the town of Tuban on the northern coast of the island of Java. The contract is worth around $250 million and…
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, says that its UOP C3 Oleflex process technology has been selected by Williams (Tulsa, Okla.) to produce propylene, a valuable petrochemical used in plastics production. The selection is the sixth win…
PPC (Thann, France; www.ppchemicals.com), a company of WeylChem Group (Frankfurt am Main, Germany; www.weylchem.com), the fine chemicals platform of International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG; Luxembourg), has secured bank financing from Commerzbank for the conversion of the mercury electrolysis plant. The…
Uhde Inventa-Fischer (Domat/Ems, Switzerland; www.uhde-inventa-fischer.com) and JSC Grodno Azot PTC Khimvolokno (Belarus) have successfully commissioned a plant for the production of polyamide 6. The multiline plant is located in Grodno, Western Belarus, has a capacity of 91,000 metric tons (m.t.)…
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has agreed with Maschinenfabrik Köppern GmbH & Co. KG (Hattingen, Germany; www.koeppern.com) on cooperation in the manufacture and supply of Outotec branded comminution products as part of Outotec's process solutions. Köppern is a global leader…