In The News
Business News: February 2024
Plant Watch Solenis to build new polyvinylamine production facility in Virginia January 12, 2024 — Solenis, LLC (Wilmington, Del.; www.solenis.com) will invest $193 million to expand production capacity of polyvinylamine (PVAm) in Suffolk, Va. The company will build a new…
Pilot plant planned for CO2 capture project using carbonate fuel cells
ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Nederland B.V. (Rotterdam, the Netherlands; www.esso.nl) is planning to build a pilot plant at its Rotterdam manufacturing complex to generate performance and operability data for a modular carbon-capture and storage (CCS) technology based on carbonate fuel cells…
This process makes freshwater from brine while capturing CO2
A new electrochemical technology for direct-air capture (DAC) of atmospheric CO2 can also produce freshwater from brackish water or brine waste from desalination or wastewater treatment facilities (diagram). The technology, developed by Capture6 (Berkeley, Calif.; www.capture6.org), splits the salt content…
This new stainless steel is ultra-resistant to corrosion
One of the major hindrances in saltwater electrolysis for “green”-hydrogen production is the cost of materials to construct electrolyzer components that can withstand an extremely corrosive saltwater environment. Currently, titanium coated with platinum or gold is usually required for such…
A continuous electrochemical process for direct-air CO2 removal
Direct-air capture (DAC) of atmospheric carbon dioxide presents promise for helping to reach global-warming reduction goals. However, many DAC technologies are hindered by high costs and inefficiency. RepAir Carbon (Yokne-am Illit, Israel; www.repair-carbon.com) recently launched a field prototype of its…
Sand-based thermal-energy storage
Using concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy to supply industrial-heating requirements is a promising way to reduce the use of fossil fuels. This is the aim of Magaldi Green Energy (Rome, Italy; www.magaldigreenenergy.com), which developed its Solar Thermo Electric Magaldi (STEM)…
Converting a steel mill to climate-neutral steel production
To decarbonize steel production and its high carbon dioxide emissions, Fraunhofer researchers, TS Elino GmbH (Dürren; www.elino.de) and Salzgitter AG (all Germany; www.salzgitter-ag.com) are working on converting an existing steel mill to climate-neutral production methods. The aim is to produce…
Chementator Briefs
CO2 to CO SK Innovation Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, an R&D organization of SK Innovation Co. Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea; www.skinnovation.com), has successfully manufactured about 1 kg/d of CO using diatomic catalyst (DAC) technology, which selectively converts CO2…
Converting natural gas to alcohols using MOFs
Capturing natural gas from petroleum drilling wells is economically challenging, but would have positive environmental impacts because it would eliminate the need for flaring and could allow the hydrocarbons to be converted into useful chemicals. Now, research led by chemists…
Cybersecurity Threats Prompt Proactive Approach
An evolving threat landscape for plant security is attracting more attention to the development of operational technology (OT)-specific cybersecurity programs, underlining the importance of collaboration and blurring the line between cyber- and physical security Cybersecurity threats against critical infrastructure sites,…