In The News
Gold-medal ways of going for the green
As it has for several years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) once again paid tribute early this summer to companies, as well as to an individual, for contributions to pollution prevention, via its Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards competition.…
August New Products (domestic edition)
Low flowrates can be measured with these sensors Models 104 and 107 Liquid Flo-Sensors are designed as an electronic alternative to ball-and-tube rotameters and can measure fluid flowrates as low as 13 mL/min. Stainless-steel construction offers compatibility with…
August New Products (international edition)
Pick one of ten sensors to track exposure to hazardous gases There are now ten different contaminant-specific sensors available for this firm's Pac 7000 single-gas detector (photo). Depending on which sensors are fitted, the device can reliably announce…
Tiny Fe-Ni batteries accelerate soil decontamination
Soil contaminated with chlorinated aliphatic compounds can be remediated ten times faster than with biological or iron-based methods by use of a new metallic powder developed by Tosoh Corp. (Tokyo; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6514-532). The powder, called MA-FN20, electrochemically strips the chlorine atoms…
NH3-based CO2 capture to be field tested
Powerspan Corp. (Portsmouth, N.H.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6514-535) is developing a process that uses an aqueous ammonia (AA) solution to capture COâ‚‚ from the fluegas (FG) of power plants. Results from a joint research project with the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s (DOE; Washington,…
Making pure hydrogen from biomass
Professor emeritus Kiyoshi Ohtsuka and his colleagues at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6514-538) have discovered a new process that produces pure Hâ‚‚ from cellulose. The process not only has nearly a 100% yield, but produces no CO…
Chementator: Borrowing from aviation to improve compression
With funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.), Ramgen Power Systems (Bellevue, Wash.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-536) is developing a compact supersonic compressor that combines aspects of the shock-compression systems used in supersonic flight inlets with proven turbomachinery design practices…
Chementator: A new coating for steel
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, Wash.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-537) have developed a ceramic-based coating for steel and superalloys that prevents corrosion, oxidation, carburization and sulfidization, which commonly occur in gas, liquid, steam and other environments. The low-cost, easy-to-apply material…
Chementator: Controlled polymerization
Warwick Effect Polymers (WEP; Coventry, U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-540) has licensed patented technology from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburg, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-541) to exploit the commercial potential of atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). ATRP is a controlled “living” polymerization involving radicals that can grow, but…
Chementator: Industry group to develop a multifunctional wireless network standard
An industrial group, composed of Honeywell, Adaptive Instruments, Endress + Hauser, Flowserve, Omnex Control Systems, 3e Technologies International, and Yokogawa, have joined the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (ISA; Research Triangle Park, N.C.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-542) SP100 working group (chartered last year)…