In The News
Bartec acquires Technor Safe Ex
Bartec GmbH (Bad Mergentheim, Germany; www.bartec.de) has acquired Technor Safe Ex AS (Stavanger, Norway), one of the key markets for European oil-and-gas production, Technor heads its domestic market in the sale of explosion-proof equipment and systems. Typical applications for the…
GEA: Major orders from Morocco and Hong Kong
GEA Mechanical Equipment (www.geaquipment.com), a segment of GEA Group AG (Bochum, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has received two major orders for the delivery of fuel systems for a gas-turbine power plant in Morocco and of decanters for the municipal wastewater clarification plant…
Rare-Earth Metals For the Future
As demand for rare-earth metals in a wide range of technology applications continues to increase, efforts to reestablish mining and production of rare-earth elements (REEs) is underway outside China, currently the dominant force in REE production. Future supplies of REEs…
A modular SMR unit provides onsite hydrogen production
Standardized steam-methane-reforming (SMR) reactor units recently commercialized by Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) allow direct hydrogen production at customer sites at costs much lower than those associated with alternative H2 supply modes, including electrolysis and transporting compressed or liquefied H2.…
Nanowires that spring into action
A group of Singapore researchers have reported a new approach to induce the coiling of prefabricated gold nanowires (AuNWs) inside polymer shells, leading to structures resembling torsion springs. In contrast to gas-phase methods that require high temperatures and are limited…
Fabric of carbon fibers set to improve fuel-cell performance
Photos: Teijin Group Toho Tenax Co. (Tokyo; www.tohotenax.com), the main company of the Teijin Group’s carbon fibers business, has commercialized a gas-diffusion layer (GDL) made of carbon fiber fabric for use as an electrode component for fuel cells. GDLs are…
Micro-plasma reactor makes methanol from methane
A plasma-based process has achieved a 30% yield of methanol from methane in a microreactor system developed by a research team led by Tomohiro Nozaki, associate professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology (TiTech; Tokyo, www.mech.titech.ac.jp). The yield is nearly the…
Spheripol process technology is chosen for new PP plant in China and more business news
Spheripol process technology is chosen for new PP plant in China September 15, 2010 — LyondellBasell’s (Rotterdam, The Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) Spheripol process technology has been selected by Pucheng Clean Energy Chemical Co. for a new 400,000-ton/yr polypropylene (PP) plant to…
A new multiphase contactor promises to cut costs for carbon capture and more
Westec Environmental Solutions, LLC (WES; Chicago, Ill.; www.wes-worldwide.com) has developed a gas-liquid absorption technology that can dramatically enhance mass transfer in gas-liquid absorption, extraction and scrubbing systems. The patented WES Absorber operates co-currently and creates a micro-froth matrix that intensifies…
‘World’s first’ commercial plant to produce biofuel from municipal waste
Enerkem Inc. (Montreal, Can-ada; www.enerkem.com) has broken ground in Edmonton, Alberta, on what is said to be the world’s first industrial-scale plant to produce liquid fuel from municipal solid waste. When the plant starts up at the end of 2011,…