In The News
The mass production of organic-modified metal oxide nanoparticles
A system that continuously produces 10 ton/yr of nanoparticles has been developed by Tadafumi Adschiri, principal investigator at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR) and professor at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials and New Industry Hatchery…
A more-efficient Fischer-Tropsch reactor
The production rate (per amount of catalyst) for generating liquid hydrocarbons from syngas by the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process, using a slurry reactor or tubular reactor, is generally limited to about 30% of the maximum rate. The restraining factor is heat…
Knowledge-based approach to catalyst development
Petroleum-derived ethylene normally contains traces of acetylene, which interferes with the conversion of ethylene into polyethylene (PE). Because it is difficult to separate it, the acetylene is selectively hydrogenated to ethylene — without subsequent hydrogenation to ethane — using a…
Making synthetic rubber from biomass
Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (www.ajinomoto.com) and Bridgestone Corp. (Both Tokyo, Japan; www.bridgestone.com) have jointly developed a bio-based, high- cis-polyisoprene synthetic rubber. The two companies began an R&D cooperation in June 2011 to combine their know-how — Ajinomoto’s state-of-the-art fermentation technologies for…
Detecting sub-50-nm particles in ultrapure water
A new particle-size measurement technique has been developed and used to evaluate filter retention efficiency for particles with an average diameter of 12 nm by C.T. Associates Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.; www.ctassociatesinc.com) and W.L. Gore and Associates (Newark, Del.; www.gore.com).…
August Chementator Briefs
A new electrolysis cell At Achema 2012, ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu) introduced a new generation of its single-element electrolysis cell, Generation 6, which offers improved energy consumption and increased active-membrane area. These improvements are due to an…
A self-healing dynamic membrane
French researchers from the Institut Européen des Membranes (CNRS/ENSCM, Université Montpiellier; www.iemm.univ-mont2.fr) and the Institut de Chimie Radicalaire (CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université) have developed what is claimed to be the first dynamic membrane for water filtration that not only can adjust…
Methane recovery from a trona mine
Last month, Solvay Group (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) unveiled a methane recovery system (the MaRS Project) that captures methane liberated by mining trona ore (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate), and pipes the gas to nearby processing facilities as a fuel for process heating.…
Outotec to provide technology for Canadian high-purity alumina plant
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) and Orbite Aluminae have agreed to terms for a project related to the Canadian company's new plant to process high purity alumina. The scope of delivery for Outotec involves both basic and detail engineering as…
Scaleup of a CTL process with carbon capture
The Yankuang Group (Zoucheng City, Shandong Province; www.ykjt.cn), one of China’s largest coal companies, and Accelergy Corp. (Houston; www.accelergy.com), are jointly developing a large-scale, low-carbon, coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant incorporating both direct and indirect liquefaction, in Erdos in China’s Inner Mongolia…