The Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W; Charlotte, N.C.; www.babcock.com) announced today that its subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG), has reached an agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance to begin initial engineering and preparation for full…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Xinjiang Markor Chemical Industry Co. (Markor; ) plan to establish two joint ventures (JVs) for the production of butanediol (BDO) and polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF; chemical name: polytetramethylene ether glycol) in Korla, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region,…
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is strengthening its standing as the world’s leading producer of high-performance rubber. Following a feasibility study, the company has decided to convert production of emulsion styrene butadiene rubber (E-SBR) used in standard tires, to solution…
Conventional methanation — the reaction of CO and H2 (synthesis gas) to form methane — has recently become important as a way to produce substitute natural gas (SNG) from gasified coal in regions of the world where natural gas is…
A team from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.monash.edu.au) has prepared graphene monoliths with a cork-like hierarchical structure, exhibiting ultra-low density, superelasticity, good electrical conductivity and high efficiency of energy absorption. The ability to maintain structural integrity upon large deformation is…
Existing metallurgical processes for titanium production from ilmenite — by far the most sought-after titanium ore — are plagued by disadvantages, mainly the generation of large amounts of waste, and improvements are needed to treat ilmenite for the production of…
Researchers from Newcastle University (U.K.; www.ncl.ac.uk) have discovered that, in the presence of a nickel catalyst, CO2 can be rapidly and cheaply converted into solid carbonate salts. The discovery could lead to a simpler and less-expensive alternative for carbon capture…
Reductions in power consumption by over 30% have been observed at a full-scale formaldehyde production plant by introducing a new design in which a pressurization blower is replaced by a turbocharger that is powered by the exhaust gas from the…
An ultraviolet oxidation process for the destruction of water-borne organic contaminants that combines UV with chlorine, rather than hydrogen peroxide, is being developed by MIOX Corp. (Albuquerque, N.M.; www.miox.com). The company’s Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) promises to be less expensive…
Microelectrode Although antimony electrodes have been used for decades to measure pH, they only allow for measuring pH changes at a certain distance from electrodes or corroding surfaces. Now, researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish…