Plant Watch Oxea to build new carboxylic acids plant in Germany July 6, 2019 —Oxea (Monheim am Rhein, Germany; www.oxea-chemicals.com) is building a new world-scale production plant for carboxylic acids in Oberhausen, Germany. When brought onstream by the end of…
An international team, including staff from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist; Daejeon, South Korea; www.kaist.ac.kr), led by Kaist’s professor Jeung Ku Kang, has developed a technology to analyze the gas adsorption behavior of molecules of each…
Solar desalination Researchers at Rice University (Houston, Tex.; www.rice.edu) working on nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation (NESMD) have found that concentrating sunlight on small areas of the desalination membrane leads to a non-linear improvement in performance in vapor pressure, which forces…
A modular, fuel-cell-like assembly featuring specially developed microbial communities is capable of producing pure hydrogen from a wide range of organic wastes. Developed by startup company Electro-Active Technologies (Oak Ridge, Tenn.; https://electroactive.tech), the microbial electrolysis system is now in the…
The latest valves are designed to last in challenging chemical applications, increasing uptime and safety As operational efficiency and safety continue to be top priorities in the chemical process industries (CPI), processors are demanding increased reliability from their equipment, and…
An international group of scientists has created a bowl-shaped electrode that can efficiently convert CO2 into carbon-based fuels and chemicals. The group includes scientists from the University of Bath (Bath, UK; www.bath.ac,uk), Fudan University (Shanghai, China; www.fudan.edu.cn), and the Shanghai…
Thyssenkrupp Materials Services GmbH (Essen, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-materials-services.com) continues to drive digital transformation: since early 2019, an artificial intelligence (AI) solution, supported by Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure, has been integrated into the processes of the largest materials distribution and service provider…
A new low-cost, safe and environmentally friendly method for removing polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) from water has been developed by researchers from Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia; www.flinders.edu.au). PFAS are commonly used in non-stick and protective coatings, lubricants and aviation fire-fighting…
Gold is usually leached from ore using hazardous substances, such as cyanide, mercury, aqua regia and others. Although there has been some progress in developing bioleaching technology, such methods still require mining and processing the ore before micro-organisms can go…
A new retrosynthesis platform enables users to work backwards from a target molecule to optimize synthesis pathways. MilliporeSigma’s (Burlington, Mass.; www.sigmaaldrich.com) Synthia software uses sophisticated algorithms backed by a database of over 72,000 coded reaction rules to provide precise pathways…