In The News
Linde builds ASU in Kazakhstan
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) is set to construct a large, state-of-the-art air separation unit (ASU) for ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel corporation, at ArcelorMittal’s Temirtau site in Kazakhstan. This plant will be Kazakhstan’s first industrial-scale development with a…
Linde expands gas supply network for ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) is set to expand its gas supply network for steel conglomerate ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe at its largest production location in Duisburg, Germany. Under the terms of the agreement, Linde will construct another industrial-scale air…
Inauguration of world’s largest ethane cracker
Total S.A. (Paris. France; www.total.com) announces the inauguration of the world’s largest olefin cracker based on ethane in Ras Laffan, Qatar. With a production capacity of 1.3 million tons of ethylene per year, the Ras Laffan Olefin Cracker (RLOC) will feed…
Messer secures supply of CO2 in Vietnam
Industrial gases specialist Messer Group GmbH (Sulzbach/Frankfurt, Germany; www.messergroup.com) has signed a contract that secures access to a CO2 source in the southern Vietnamese province of Binh Phuoc. Messer will receive 200 metric tons (m.t.) of raw carbon dioxide per…
Surface-structured RO membrane couples fouling resistance with flux
Engineers at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA; www.ucla.edu) have developed a new class of highly permeable reverse-osmosis (RO) membranes for water desalination that incorporates a “brush layer” of hydrophilic polymer chains anchored to the membrane surface. Brownian motion of…
Improving enzyme performance for making chemicals
By genetically modifying E. coli — introducing four enzymatic genes from bacteria of the Clostridium family — Mitsui Chemicals Corp. (Mitsui, Tokyo, www.mitsuichem.com) has increased the selectivity for fermenting glucose into isopropyl alcohol (IPA) from 40% to up to 70%.…
These microfluidic sensors can be made with a sewing machine
A low-cost method for fabricating microfluidic diagnostics devices using cotton, paper, or other multifilament threads has been developed by a team from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.eng.monash.edu.au). The devices can be used to provide qualitative and, at least, semi-quantitative analyses…
These microfluidic sensors can be made with a sewing machine
A low-cost method for fabricating microfluidic diagnostics devices using cotton, paper, or other multifilament threads has been developed by a team from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.eng.monash.edu.au). The devices can be used to provide qualitative and, at least, semi-quantitative analyses…
May Chementator briefs
A new Cl2 process Oxygen-depolarized cathodes (ODCs) will be used for the first time to produce chlorine on an industrial scale in a 20,000 metric ton per year (m.t./yr) electrolyzer at the Krefeld-Uerdingen chemical park in Germany. The plant…
This new process makes biogasoline from carbohydrates
In late March, the world’s first demonstration plant for converting sugars directly into gasoline started up at the Madison, Wisc., facilities of Virent Energy Systems, Inc. (www.virent.com). The demonstration plant — part of a joint R&D collaboration of Virent and…