Concern with energy efficiency has increased the popularity of window glass coatings that control the amount of sunlight that passes through, as well as windows made of thin solar cells that can turn them into electricity generators. Now researchers from…
The complex demands of oil-and-gas production often require the development of customized chemical technologies, and CPI companies are rising to meet these challenges The oil-and-gas and chemical process industries (CPI) are interconnected in that the oil-and-gas sector provides many of…
New pump technologies offer better containment and reliability to keep product flowing safely and efficiently Because moving hazardous or high-value product through the process in a cost-effective manner is the name of the game in today’s chemical process industries (CPI),…
Researchers from Penn State University (State College, Pa.; www.psu.edu) and Dalian University of Technology (Dalian, China; www.dlut.edu.cn) have improved the CO2-to-methanol process by using a catalyst that combines copper and palladium. Using a palladium-to-copper atomic ratio range of 0.3 to…
Later this year (Q4 2018), APK AG (Merseburg, Germany; www.apk-ag.de) will start up the first commercial plant to recycle multilayer packaging using the company’s solvent-based Newcycling process. The plant will process 8,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of post-industrial multilayer…
A new pilot project brings together advanced membrane filtration with non-thermal, zero-liquid-discharge (ZLD) solvent exchange to efficiently treat high-salinity produced water from oil-and-gas operations. PetroH2O Recovery (Southlake, Tex.; www.petroh2o.com) is currently building a pilot plant with the capacity to process…
Plant Watch Asahi Kasei to install alkaline-water electrolysis system for Toshiba Energy August 13, 2018 — Asahi Kasei Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) received an order from Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corp. (Kanagawa, Japan; www.toshiba-energy.com) for a 10-MW single-unit alkaline-water-electrolysis…
Splitting water with sunlight is a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to make hydrogen, but the conversion efficiency is presently very low, because current photocatalysts only work using ultraviolet radiation — a small fraction (3–5%) of sunlight. Now, a promising…
Bio-isoprene Yokohama Rubber Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.yokohama.com) has developed what is said to be the world’s first technology capable of efficiently producing isoprene from biomass. The new breakthrough is the result of joint research with Riken (www.riken.jp) and Zeon Corp.…
Plant-based extracts, such as antioxidants, phytochemicals and polyphenols, are used in a number of end-markets, including cosmetics, foods and nutritional supplements. A proprietary, low-polarity, pressurized-water extraction method is set to drastically improve the recovery of useful ingredients from botanical sources.…