In The News
Business News: March 2021
Plant Watch Austria’s largest green-hydrogen plant being constructed at OMV refinery February 16, 2021 — OMV AG (Vienna, Austria; www.omv.com) and infrastructure bank Kommunalkredit Austria AG announced a joint €25-million investment in the construction of Austria’s largest electrolysis plant at…
Separate xylene isomers with less energy
Xylene isomers are usually derived from the catalytic reforming of crude oil, and require costly methods to separate them from each other, including distillation, fractional crystallization and adsorption in high-temperature and high-pressure environments. “The separation of xylene’s isomers requires much…
Chementator Briefs
Self-healing adhesives Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Tenn.; www.ornl.gov) developed a series of autonomous self-healable and highly adhesive elastomers that are fabricated via a simple, efficient and scalable process. The self-healing elastomers demonstrated unprecedented adhesion strength and…
Direct degradation of microplastics in wastewater
Microplastic pollutants in wastewater are notoriously difficult to treat, and can stem from many common sources, ranging from personal-care products to textiles. A new treatment technology developed by a team of researchers from Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS;…
A two-step process reduces nitrous oxide emissions
Last month, Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) inaugurated a new plant in Lillo/Antwerp, Belgium to reduce the nitrous oxide emissions that are generated during the production of caprolactam. The €10-million investment breaks down approximately 500 metric tons (m.t.) of N2O…
Sustainable enzyme-based production of macrocyclic lactones for fragrances
Planned commercial-scale production of macrocyclic gamma-lactone molecules using an enzymatic process will supply the flavors and fragrances market with sustainable alternatives to existing processes based on synthesizing petroleum-derived molecules or isolating molecules from natural sources. The synthetic biology company Conagen…
Printing sensors onto stickers
Advanced sensors are crucial to any predictive maintenance strategy, and often these sensors must be quickly installed into difficult-to-reach spaces. A novel nanomaterial technology enables predictive sensors that can be “printed” onto flexible stickers. These stickers can be easily attached…
February Chementator Briefs
Ammonia catalyst Clariant Catalyst (Munich, Germany; www.clariant.com) and Casale SA (Lugano, Switzerland; www.casale.ch) have developed a new ammonia synthesis catalyst for sustainable CO2 reduction. Based on Clariant’s AmoMax 10 — a wüstite-based alternative to traditional magnetite-based catalysts — the AmoMax-Casale…
New Offerings Aid Heat Exchanger Design and Operations
New offerings, including software products, consulting services, research insights and design tools, provide support for improving heat exchanger design and operation Because they are critical pieces of equipment across virtually all sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI), heat exchangers…
Metal-oxide nanocrystals have applications in lubrication and electronics displays
Pixelligent Technologies Inc. (Baltimore, Md.; www.pixelligent.com) has developed a process for making metal-oxide nanocrystaline materials that have found uses as additives in a variety of industrial lubricants, mixed- and augmented-reality (AR/MR) glasses, and various display technologies. The company’s PixClearProcess results…