Plant Watch Ineos breaks ground for Bayport ASA plant August 12, 2019 — Ineos Styrolution GmbH (Frankfurt, Germany; www.ineos-styrolution.com) hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its new acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) plant in Bayport, Tex. The new site, which is designed…
New laboratory instruments simplify the collection of accurate and consistent measurements to increase productivity and product quality Efficiency and optimization are key words when it comes to all aspects of chemical processing and the laboratory is no different. Like most…
Scientists have long sought ways to take advantage of the high strength of natural silk protein in new materials, but its incorporation has been hindered by the inability to stabilize the protein in water. Now, a company known as Evolved…
Although it contains many valuable metals, electronic waste (e-waste) is an exceedingly difficult material stream to process, and the vast majority of e-waste is not recycled. EnviroLeach Technologies Inc. (Vancouver, B.C.; www.enviroleach.com) is currently preparing to start up a first-of-its-kind…
Oxysulfide semiconductors have narrow bandgaps — a property that makes them suitable photocatalysts for water splitting under irradiation with visible light (640 nm wavelength). That’s because the electronegative sulfide ions negatively shift the valence band edges of the corresponding oxides.…
Many countries are now making rapid advances in hydrogen energy technologies and strategy, and the rest of the world has much to learn from their experience, according to a new report — Advancing Hydrogen — compiled by a team from…
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 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…
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…
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…