Verenium Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.verenium.com) and BP p.l.c. (London; www.bp.com) have formed a partnership to accelerate the development and commercialization of Verenium’s technology for producing ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks such as sugarcane bagasse, switchgrass, rice straw and wood chips. In…
Metabolix, Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.metabolix.com) has demonstrated, in recently completed greenhouse trials, that switchgrass plants engineered using the firm’s multi-gene expression technology produced significant amounts polyhydroxybutyrate (a polyhydroxyalkanoate; PHA) bioplastics in leaf tissues. The result is said to be the…
Algae constitutes roughly half of the Earth’s photosynthetic activity and undergirds the food chain for approximately 70% of the world’s biomass. With over 100,000 strains ranging from microscopic single-cellular organisms to seaweed species miles in length, algae would seem to…
BHR Biofuels, a subsidiary of BHR Group (Cranfield, U.K., www.bhrgroup.co.uk), has installed and demonstrated two process-intensified, full-size Biodiesel Reactor Systems at a chemical plant producing biodiesel from waste and virgin oils. The reactor systems are said to consume some 70%…
Plant Watch Emerson wins contract to automate water-treatment-chemicals plant in China August 20, 2008 — Nalco Industrial Services Co. has selected Emerson Process Management to be the main instrument vendor for a new water-treatment-chemicals plant in the Nanjing Chemical &…
Rentech, Inc. (Los Angeles, Calif.; www.rentechinc.com) has produced its first run of jet fuel from its Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) product demonstration unit (PDU) in Commerce City, Colo. The plant produces a synthesis gas of hydrogen and carbon monoxide by steam-reforming of…
Conventional cooling systems rely on the properties of gases to cool, but common coolants are either harmful to people or the environment. A different approach is being investigated by researchers at the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Penn State University (University…
Fluorite, the natural mineral of calcium fluoride, is a key feedstock for making fluorochemicals. In Japan, however, the cost and availability of fluorite has become problematic due to recent restrictions on its import from China. To alleviate the problem, Organo…
A new metal carbide F-T catalyst has been developed by Oxford Catalysts Limited (Oxford, U.K., www.oxfordcatalysts.com) for making second-generation biofuel in small-scale microchannel reactors. The catalyst was produced using the company’s patented organic matrix combustion method, which makes it possible…
Last month, AE Biofuels (Cupertino, Calif.; www.aebiofuels.com) opened an integrated cellulose-and-starch ethanol demonstration facility in Butte, Mont. If operated at full capacity, the plant could produce 150,000 gal/yr of ethanol. The plant uses ambient-temperature cellulose-starch-hydrolysis (ATCSH) enzyme technology to optimize…