A novel catalyst designed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, Calif.; www.lbl.gov) and the University of California at Berkeley (www.berkeley.edu) has shown the ability to catalyze the electrolysis of water into hydrogen and…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) today (July 1, 2010) announced the merger of its Swiss group companies BASF Orgamol Pharma Solutions SA, Evionnaz, and BASF Fine Chemicals Switzerland SA, Evionnaz, to a single organization. The company arising from the merger…
New technology for fabricating nanoscale polymer threads boosts yields and improves control compared to conventional methods for producing nanoscale fibers by using a technique analogous to that for making cotton candy. The technology, known as rotary jet spinning (RJS), was…
Following the successful completion and commissioning of a coke oven plant (phase 1) for Dragon Steel Corp. of Taiwan, a member of China Steel Corp. (CSC), Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu) has again been awarded a plant contract to build…
Last month, Great River Energy (Maple Grove, Minn.; www.greatriverenergy.com) dedicated its patented DryFining coal enhancement system at its power-generating plant, Coal Creek Station, N.D. The system, developed by Great River Energy, uses waste heat to reduce the moisture level of…
The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; www.mitsui.co.jp/en) announced today that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement to form a 50:50 manufacturing joint venture (JV) to construct, own and operate a…
Torrefaction of biomass Last month, the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN; Petten; www.ecn.nl) and Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden; www.vattenfall.com) established a partnership to scale up ECNs BO2 technology — a process for upgrading biomass into a high-grade…
PLANT WATCH U.A.E. to become home of world’s largest CSP plant June 10, 2010 — Masdar (Abu Dhabi; www.masdar.ae) has appointed the bidding consortium of Total (Paris, France; www.total.com) and Abengoa Solar (Seville, Spain; www.abengoasolar.com) to own, build and operate…
Siemens Water Technologies Corp. (Warrendale, Pa.; www.water.siemens.com) and Aramco Overseas Company, B.V., a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; www.saudiaramco.com), have signed an exclusive patent and technology license agreement for the commercialization of the EcoRight membrane bioreactor (MBR), a new…
Vale (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; www.vale.com) has awarded a significant cost reimbursable contract to a consortium of WorleyParsons Ltd. (North Sydney, Australia; www.worleyparsons.com) and SNC-Lavalin (Montreal, Canada; www.snclavalin.com) for implementation of the S11D project in Brazil. Vale’s multi-billion-dollar S11D project is…