A number of factors, including plans for new plants and expansions, as well as the retirements of experienced personnel, are creating an especially competitive labor market for engineers and technical workers in the chemical process industries (CPI). The situation is…
Plant Watch Novasep to build world’s largest chromatography plant for APIs October 10, 2012 — Novasep (Pompey, France; www.novasep.com) has announced an investment of €30 million to build what will be the world’s largest chromatography plant for the production of…
In the production of deionized (DI) water from river water, sand filters are commonly used to remove solid particles prior to the ion-exchange units. However, sand beds occupy a large space — as large as 3-m wide and over 5-m…
A partnership between New Sky Energy (Boulder, Colo.; www.newskyenergy.com) and 212 Resources (Houston, Tex.; www.212resources.com) combines the two companies’ technologies to generate freshwater and usable inorganic chemicals from produced water in petroleum and natural-gas drilling operations. 212 Resources…
Among the many different ways being investigated for making hydrogen “from water” is the so-called sulfur-iodine (S-I) cycle, which involves three chemical reactions whose net products are H2 and O2: the decomposition of sulfuric acid into SO2, H2O and O2;…
Conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are unsuitable for high power applications as in electric vehicles, because they take a long time to charge, according to a team from the Interdisciplinary School of Green Energy, of the Ulsan National Institute of Science…
A team headed by professor Zhiguo Yuan, from the Advanced Water Management Center, University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia; www.awmc.uq.edu.au) claims to have developed a new method for corrosion and odor control in sewers that is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly…
Japan Blue Energy Co. (JBEC; Tokyo, Japan; www.jpo-net.co.jp), Daiwa Lease Co., Toyota Tsusho Corp., and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. have established the Business Research Group of Hydrogen Innovation Town (BRG-HIT) to start verification tests for a new technology for making hydrogen…
Water treatment The recently introduced FoodPro ST line of water-treatment chemicals from GE Power & Water (Trevose, Pa.; www.ge.com) prevents corrosion and scale in stainless-steel sterilizers and pasteurizers in the food and beverage industry, and they are less expensive than…
Extraction of metals, such as lithium, from laterite ores is usually carried out through solubilization of metals by acids, such as sulfuric and hydrochloric acids. However, substantial metal recoveries from laterites have been achieved only through thermal pre-treatment of laterites,…