In The News
Larox to establish a subsidiary in India
0 0 0 Larox Corp. (Lappeenranta, Finland; www.larox.com) will establish a subsidiary in India with the aim of increasing the company’s market share in the growing Indian market. The new subsidiary will be responsible both for Larox’s aftermarket services and filter…
More efforts to make biofuels from algae, microorganisms
Over the past few weeks there has been a number of announcements on projects aimed to further develop algae-to-fuels technology (see also, “Pond Strength,” CE, September 2008, pp. 22–25). Plankton Power (Wellfleet; www.planktonpower.com) and the Regional Technology Development Corp. of…
… and from microorganisms
Last month, BP Corp. (London; www.bp.com) signed a joint-development agreement with Martek Biosciences Corp. (Columbia, Md.; www.martek.com) to work on the production of microbial oils for biofuels applications. The two companies aim to establish proof of concept for large-scale, cost-effective…
New heating technique improves zeolite membrane performance
Adding a rapid heat-treatment step to the process of making zeolite membranes improves separation performance by eliminating grain boundary defects, according to researchers from the University of Minnesota (UMN; Minneapolis, Minn.; www.umn.edu), who published their study in the July 31…
A protective coating helps fine powders flow, without agglomeration
A team from Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.pharm.monash.edu.au), has developed an approach — a hybrid mixing and milling process — for producing fine (1–20 µm) pharmaceutical powders with good flow and de-agglomeration properties. Team…
Pt-free catalysts promise to lower fuel-cell costs…
Showa Denko K.K. (Tokyo; www.sdk.co.jp/html/english) has developed a platinum-substitute catalyst system for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) under the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization’s (NEDO; Kawasaki, Japan) project led by professor Kenichiro Ota of Yokohama National University. The…
SABIC and Mitsubishi Rayon form a joint venture … and more business news
Plant Watch Cement plant expansion in the Ukraine decreases environmental emissions August 20, 2009 — ABB Switzerland Ltd. (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) has won an order from international building materials group CRH to deliver electrical and automation equipment for Podilsky Cement’s…
A cost-effective process for recycling wastewater
A wastewater treatment process that consumes less energy, produces less sludge and makes available up to 75% of the water for reuse — including that of potable water quality — has been commercialized by Linde Gases, a division of…
… as does reducing the Pt load
A technique for making PEFC electrodes with one fourth the amount of platinum catalyst compared to conventional PEFCs has been developed by Hosokawa Micron Corp. (Osaka, Japan; www.hosokawamicron.co.jp/en) in collaboration with professors Kiyoshi Kanamura, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and Makio Naitou,…
This process may produce electricity from low-temperature geothermal resources
The world has vast geothermal resources in the temperature range of 150–250°F, but these temperatures are too low for economical exploitation, using today’s technology. A process that could change the benchmark is being developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL,…