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Moving to Modular
If the word “modular” brings to mind a trailer office parked on site, it’s time to revisit modular systems. Today’s modular system go well beyond office space and tool sheds, and can contain almost anything from a skid-mounted filtration system…
Tunable Enzymes and the Leaner, Greener CPI
Enzymes, nature’s catalysts, have been used in industrial processes for centuries. Now, they are coming into their own in the chemical process industries (CPI). As green chemistry becomes an industry mantra, pressures to reduce product cost, facility carbon footprint and…
Winning with Electrochemistry
These days, the term electrochemistry has become almost synonymous with advanced batteries and energy-storage devices, and considerable R&D efforts abound for both batteries (Chem. Eng., October 2013, pp. 17–23) and energy storage (Chem. Eng., December 2011, pp. 19–23). Nevertheless, traditional,…
Grappling with Graphene: The race to commercialization
In the ten years since its first isolation by a pair of physicists, the single-atom-thick carbon allotrope known as graphene has been extolled as a “miracle material” for everything from television screens to tennis rackets to superabsorbent fabrics. What excites…