Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (Lemont, Ill.; www.anl.gov) have developed a thermal energy-storage system for industrial processes that can capture and store typically wasted heat for later use. Originally conceived as a way to store…
One of the main problems in the conversion of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, into liquid fuel or hydrogen is the development of coke- and sintering-resistant catalysts. Nickel on magnesium oxide (Ni/MgO) has long been identified as…
COVID-19 Response Ineos Styrolution donates ABS for safety-glasses production May 13, 2020 — Ineos Styrolution (Frankfurt, Germany; www.ineos-styrolution.com) has donated over 1,300 kg of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) to Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg to help produce protective glasses for frontline healthcare workers.…
Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; Upton, N.Y.; www.bnl.gov) and the University of Delaware (Newark; www.udel.edu) have designed a catalyst capable of selectively removing oxygen atoms from the side chain of an aromatic compound without affecting the ring. The team…
Lithium is a key raw material for batteries that power electric vehicles, portable electronics and more, but traditional methods for obtaining it are plagued by poor lithium recovery (a large portion of Li is lost in the recovery process), slow…
Demand for refined products has dropped sharply, challenging petroleum refineries with compressed margins, but a deal was struck on global production cuts The large-scale shutdown of economic activity related to the global pandemic response has caused demand for refined petroleum…
Wearable technologies help chemical processors improve productivity and safety of workers Wearable technologies — cameras, tablets and other devices loaded with applications (apps) and software that can be attached to the body or personal protective equipment (PPE) — are catching…
Light-emitting Si Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE; the Netherlands; www.tue.nl) have developed an alloy with silicon that can emit light. Together with researchers from the universities of Jena, Linz and Munich, the researchers combined silicon and germanium in…
Chemetry Corp. (Moss Landing, Calif.; www.chemetrycorp.com) is piloting a hybrid electrochemical-catalysis process for making propylene oxide (PO) that eliminates some of the major production hurdles associated with chlorohydrin-based PO production. “The traditional chlorohydrin process produces about 47 tons of wastewater…
A new electrochemical process could make triphenylphosphine (TPP) — an important reagent in many organic transformations — more practical for industrial use. Synthesizing TPP results in large volumes of waste in the form of triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO), which is very…