Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso.com) has acquired U.S. software company ExperTune Inc. (Milwaukee, Wisc.). ExperTune's products are widely used as software tools to analyze and monitor the performance of industrial processes and to identify the associated maintenance and…
In over two decades since it entered the market, Endress+Hauser Endress+Hauser (Reinach, Switzerland; www.endress.com), a global leader in instrumentation and process automation solutions, has established itself in Indonesia as a supplier of high-quality measuring instruments and solutions. To strengthen this…
Cationic polymers have been used in the petroleum industry as shale-control agents, demulsifiers, blocking agents, and filtrate reducers for drilling fluids, but process complexity and high cost have limited their application. Now researchers from Zhejiang Normal University (Jinhua; www.zjnu.edu.cn) and…
A photocatalyst that reduces CO2 into carbon monoxide is being commercialized by Tokyo Chemical Industry Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.tcichemicals.com/en/jp/index.html). Developed by Osamu Ishitani and his research group at Tokyo Institute of Technology (TiTech; Japan; www.chemistry.titech.ac.jp/~ishitani/index-jp.htm), the catalyst is a step…
A research group at Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu) has developed a method for vaporizing water into steam using sunlight-illuminated nanoparticles, with only a small fraction of the energy heating the fluid. Sub-wavelength metal or carbon particles are intense absorbers of…
Under an ARPA contract Gas Technology Institute (GTI, Des Plaines, Ill.; www.gastechnology.org) is developing a process to convert natural gas directly into methanol and hydrogen. The process is much simpler and more efficient than the conventional high-temperature and capital-intensive steam-reforming…
An Indian team from the Institute of Minerals & Materials Technology (www.immt.res.in), and Utkal University (both Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India; www.utkal-university.org) has achieved significant improvement in the recovery of nickel from lateritic ore by using oxalic acid produced by the fungus…
Plant Watch Stamicarbon wins contract for urea plant in China December 6, 2012 — Stamicarbon B.V. (Sittard, the Netherlands; www.stamicarbon.com), the Licensing and IP Center of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. (Milan, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.it), has been awarded a contract for a new…
Soy polyurethanes Scientists at Battelle (Columbus, Ohio; www.battelle.org) have developed a water-based polyurethane (PU) that uses soy oil instead of petroleum to produce the polyol precursor. Whereas standard water-based PUs require adding N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) tolower viscosity, Battelle's process eliminates…
Researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Gaithersburg, Md.; www.nist.gov) have developed a relatively simple, fast and effective method of depositing uniform, ultrathin layers of platinum atoms onto a surface. The technique may lead to a…