In The News
Slash sewage-sludge volumes with this add-on digester
A 60% reduction in the sludge volume was achieved at the sewage treatment plant of Noboribetu City, Hokkaido, Japan, after installing a Bio-Diet SBD-1200 system from Nippon Steel Kankyo Engineering Co. (NSKE; Tokyo, www.nske.co.jp). The demonstration unit, developed at the…
A fast way to recover CO2
A rapid pressure-swing-adsorption (rPSA) system to separate carbon dioxide from fluegas is being developed by W.R. Grace & Co. (Columbus, Md.; www.grace.com) and three partners under a $3 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov).…
A high-performance electrode material for lithium-ion batteries
A huge market for lithium ion batteries is expected to develop as car makers move toward electric vehicles. However, improvements in the batteries’ energy and power density are needed. It is also desirable to replace the common, high-cost lithium cobalt…
October Chementator Briefs
Renewable jet fuel Houston-based bioenergy company Terrabon Inc. (www.terrabon.com) has been awarded a $9.6-million, 18-month contract from Logos Technologies (Arlington, Va.; www.logos-technologies) to produce 6,000 L of renewable jet fuel for the Defense Advanced Research Products Agency (DARPA; Arlington,…
Making crude oil from coal, without mining or combustion
An underground coal-to-liquids (UCTL) technology is undergoing pilot testing at Oak Park, near Melbourne Australia, where a metric ton of brown coal is expected to yield about one barrel of oil suitable for use as refinery feedstock on an oil-parity…
Evonik establishes JV in Russia to produce feed amino acid L-lysine
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) and Russian company RusBiotech International have established the joint venture (JV) Russkie Biotechnologii for manufacturing L-lysine in Russia by means of a biotechnological process. Vassily Golubev, governor of the Rostov-on-Don region, and Vadim Varshavsky,…
Caloric supplies H2 for polysilicon production in Taiwan
The hydrogen demand for a new polysilicon facility being built in Taiwan will be covered with units from Caloric Anlagenbau GmbH (Gräfelfing, Germany; www.caloric.com). With this contract Caloric establishes itself as a competent and reliable partner for this growing industry,…
MHI and MC: Large-scale SNG project using low-rank coal in Indonesia
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; www.mhi.co.jp) and Mitsubishi Corp. (MC; both Tokyo, Japan; www.mitsubishicorp.com) have agreed with the Indonesian government to collaborate in a large-scale substitute natural gas (SNG) synthesis project utilizing Indonesia's abundant low rank coal (LRC) which is…
Dow and K2 Pure start chlor-alkali facility at California site
The Dow Chemical Co. ((Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and K2 Pure Solutions (K2 Pure; Pittsburgh, Calif.; www.k2pure.com) today celebrated the successful start-up of a new chlor-alkali plant at Dow’s Pittsburg, Calif. site. The new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will produce bleach to…
BASF to sell fertilizer activities to EuroChem
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has signed a contract with EuroChem (Moscow, Russia; www.eurochem.ru), to sell its fertilizer activities in Antwerp, Belgium. BASF also plans to sell its 50% share of the joint-venture (JV) PEC-Rhin (Ottmarsheim, France) to EuroChem. The…