In The News
Ceratec & ESK extend business relationship
ESK Ceramics GmbH & Co. KG (Kempten, Germany; www.esk.com) and Ceratec Technical Ceramics BV (Geldermalsen, Netherlands; www.ceratec.nl), have deepened their already 20-year-old, successful business relationship. At the end of 2008, the two partners signed a contract focusing on intensifying joint…
Major capacity expansion for Sarlink TPV
Sarlink (Sittard, Netherlands; www.sarlink.com) has officially opened a new production facility in Genk, Belgium. The new plant will double Sarlink’s global capacity and provide the company with a timely expansion as Thermoplastic Vulcanisate (TPV) material solutions are becoming more popular…
Petroleum refiners seek to increase distillate yield, decrease emissions . . .
Strategies for extracting more distillate from petroleum to meet the growing demand for diesel fuel constituted a major theme of the recent annual meeting of the National Petrochemical and Petroleum Refiners Association (NPRA, Washington D.C.; www.npra.gov) in San Antonio, Tex.…
Reducing foundry emissions
Cast parts, such as engine blocks, are typically made by pouring molten metal into so-called cores — sand-based molds that have internal passages for the component to be cast. Such casting cores are typically made by reacting sand with organic…
Cold-war cleanup
On March 31, U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.) Secretary Steven Chu announced $6 billion in new funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate environmental cleanup work and create jobs across 12 states. Projects identified for…
Ammonia from biomass
SynGest, Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.; www.syngest.com) plans to commercialize a process for the production of ammonia from biomass by the fall of 2011. The first plant, to be located in Menlo, Iowa, will convert 150,000 ton/yr of corncobs into 50,000…
Solid catalyst simplifies turning algae into biodiesel
Researchers at United Environment & Energy (UE&E; Horseheads, N.Y.) have developed a catalyst for the efficient conversion of algae to biodiesel. The mixed-metal oxide catalyst (comprised of metals that are resistant to corrosion yet reactive) facilitates the transesterification of algae…
A better way to make efficient catalysts
A new procedure for making uniform, metallic nanoparticles has been developed by the research group of Kousuke Mori, an associate professor at Osaka University (www.mat.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp), with support from New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki, both Japan). The…
Batch Processing: Staying Alive
As it is with all chemical processors, the current economic climate is forcing batch processors to produce more saleable product at a better profit margin from the same assets. Increasing flexibility, reliability and visibility while decreasing batch cycle times via…
Spinning yarns of CNTs
The exceptional properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), such as high tensile strength and high thermal and electrical conductivities, have suggested a number of applications, including lightweight materials for ballistics protection, actuators for muscles or artificial muscles, filaments for light sources,…