In The News
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…
Crystallization: Contributing to Circularity
In a variety of industrial applications, crystallization technologies contribute to the circularity of manufacturing processes and supply chains Crystallization is a major unit operation in the chemical process industries (CPI), typically used for separating and purifying materials in a wide…
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…
Anaerobic fermentation process using human gut microfauna
Industrial-scale production of protein-rich food additives based on anaerobic fermentation is slated to begin later this year at a former bioethanol site in Minnesota. The facility will use a fermentation process developed by White Dog Labs (WDL; Newark, Del.; www.whitedoglabs.com)…
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…
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…
Extracting zinc from flyash
In Sweden, incineration of household waste in waste-to-energy (WtE) plants is common, and generates around 250,000 metric tons (m.t.) of flyash every year. The rest of Europe accounts for around ten times that amount. Most of this waste is landfilled,…
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…