Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a urea synthesis and granulation technologies supply contract with a capacity of 2,100 ton/d for Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), Bolivian national oil company in Carrasco, Cochabamba, Bolivia. The scope…
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 signed a contract with China Chengda Engineering Co. (Chengda) for the supply of high-pressure (HP) proprietary equipment for the Shahjalal Fertilizer…
Flexible aerogels Researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, Ohio; www.nasa.gov) have developed new flexible aerogels that could eventually be used in highly insulating materials and linings. Aerogels, sometimes called “solid smoke,” are superlightweight structures of silica reinforced…
A process developed by Lehigh Technologies (Lehigh; Tucker, Ga.; www.lehightechnologies.com) for embrittling and milling rubber from end-of-life vehicle-tire material is capable of generating micron-scale rubber particles that can be used in a host of rubber, foam and plastic products to…
Increasing production of natural gas from hydraulic fracturing of shale deposits has fundamentally altered the landscape of chemical production in North America. The higher margins on steam-cracking ethane to produce ethylene have resulted in significant feedstock shifts in the U.S.…
Air Fuel Synthesis Ltd. (AFS; Darlington, U.K.; www.airfuelsynthesis.com) has recently demonstrated a process for producing carbon-neutral liquid hydrocarbon (HC) fuel from air-captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The proof-of-concept demonstration facility, located at Teesside, England produces 5–10 L/d of liquid HCs.…
Last month marked the completion of the three-year, €3.6-million E.U.-funded research project, Self-assembled Polymer Membranes (SelfMem). Coordinated by the Institute of Polymer Research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG; Germany; www.hzg.de), with twelve partners from industry and academia in Israel, Canada…
Kazuaki Ishihara and his group at Nagoya University (Japan; www.ishihara-lab.net) have established a new, environment friendly reaction technology — using Baeyer-Villiger oxidations — for selectively oxidizing ketones into esters. The reaction uses hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant, and has potential…
The sharply rising global demand for the high-tech plastic Apec from Bayer MaterialScience AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayermaterialscience.de) is spawning major investment in eastern Germany. Another plant for the production of a key precursor for Apec is currently under construction in…
A challenge in the development of polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cells is the durability and electrocatalytic activity of platinum-based electrocatalysts. The sluggishness of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) causes the fuel cell performance to be limited by the cathodic reaction, and…