Biopharmaceutical companies — especially those involved in manufacturing vaccines — spend a lot of effort and money to remove host cell nucleic acid (DNA and RNA) impurities from fermentation batches. The total downstream processing costs can account for up to…
Graphene-oxide-based materials are lamellar carbon compounds that are approximately 1-nm thick, and are expected to show excellent properties for various functional materials, such as innovative battery materials, lubricants, water-treatment membranes and catalysts. However, because these materials have been synthesized by…
China has successfully brought onstream the world’s first demonstration plant that converts coal to ethanol, according to an announcement by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Located at Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum in China’s Shaanxi province, the plant uses process technology that…
Haldor Topsoe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) has recently introduced TertiNOx, a new catalyst for simultaneously reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) and oxides-of-nitrogen (NOx) emissions from the tailgas of nitric-acid production plants. The company estimates that this alternative to conventional abatement methods…
A new approach to making silicon-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries has the potential to lower materials costs for batteries, while achieving higher energy and power. Silicon-based anodes are attractive because of silicon’s natural abundance and its high specific capacity, but…
Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) running on hydrogen are an attractive proposition, particularly as a power source for motor vehicles. In situ release of the required H 2 from a stable liquid ensures its safe storage and transportation before…
Earlier this year, Coolbrook Oy (Helsinki, Finland; www.coolbrook.fi) received a €3.6-million grant from the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation Tekes to further develop its patented RotoDynamicReactor (RDR) technology, which has the potential to improve ethylene yields by 34% compared to…
FCC catalyst BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) recently launched Borotec, the newest evolution of its resid-oil fluid-catalytic-cracking (FCC) catalysts portfolio. Borotec is the latest innovation using BASF’s unique Boron-Based Technology (BBT) platform to provide mild- and moderate-resid-feed FCC units more…
Plant Watch LyondellBasell announces HDPE technology license in Dalian April 12, 2017 — LyondellBasell’s (Rotterdam, the Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) Hostalen ACP process technology was selected by Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Chemical Co. for a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit to be built in…
New IIoT- and cloud-enabled digital tools and services give petroleum refiners new avenues to increase profitability and safety, but also require greater attention to cybersecurity While several forces are creating conditions in which U.S. petroleum refiners can thrive in 2017…