Animal and vegetable oils and fats are a key renewable feedstock for making detergents, soaps, lubricants, paints, coatings, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, as well as additives for plastics, rubber and textiles. However, a consequence of the current EU renewable-energy policy is…
At the beginning of 2008, it’s clear that global economic growth is slowing. The housing downturn has adversely affected the U.S., and the ensuing credit problems (and tightening) have spread to other nations. A key issue is whether or…
At Pollutec 2007 (Paris, France; November 27 – 30), Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (Paris, edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-531) introduced the next generation of its Actiflo clarifier process for potable and process water — Actiflo Turbo. Like its predecessor, the patented Actiflo Turbo…
Plant Watch A new plant for crude-oil processing to be built in Italy December 10, 2007 — ABB has won a contract worth more than $86 million from Eni SpA to design and construct a new oil processing plant in…
Toyo Engineering Corp. (TEC; Narashino, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-532), Modec Inc. (Tokyo, both Japan) and Velocys Inc., (Plain City, Ohio) have agreed to jointly develop a commercial gas-to-liquid (GTL) plant to be installed on a mobile platform or ship for monetizing small-to-medium…
Rentech, Inc. (Los Angeles, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-537) will build its first commercial synthetic fuels plant, using the company’s proprietary Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process, near Natchez, Miss. The plant will gasify locally purchased petroleum coke or barged-in coal, along with at least 5%…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-533) is marketing a new process that captures carbon dioxide from flue gas (FG) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The KM-CDR process uses a proprietary amine-based solvent (KS-1) in a packed column to…
Basell Corp. (Frankfurt, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-540), the National Gas Co. of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Ltd. (NGC) and the National Energy Corp. of T&T, Ltd. (NEC; both Point Lisas, Port of Spain) have entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to construct…
Metallic nanoparticles are usually produced by wet chemical methods, often using toxic and flammable substances, or by physical methods such as evaporation and laser ablation. A group from the Laboratory for Sustainable Technology, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, at…
Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (The Hague, Netherlands; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-544) and HR Biopetroleum (Honolulu, Hawaii; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-545) have begun construction of a pilot facility to grow marine algae, which will be harvested for producing vegetable oil that will be converted into biofuel. The…