Before the end of 2016, Neste Oil Oyj’s (Espoo, Finland; www.nesteoil.com) refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands will start producing 30,000–40,000 ton/yr of biopropane. The feedstock is a sidestream from the company’s 800,000-ton/yr renewable diesel-fuel plant. The refinery, which started up…
Construction has begun on a unique refinery project that will convert Canadian bitumen into ultralow-sulfur diesel while producing high-purity CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and subsequent carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The project, located near Edmonton, Alta. and run…
A high-temperature pressure-swing-absorption (HT-PSA) process that reduces energy consumption by up to 50% compared to conventional PSA technology is being developed by Tokyo Gas Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.tokyo-gas.co.jp), with support from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).…
Reed Resources Ltd. (Perth, Western Australia; www.reedresources.com) has advanced its Barrambie Titanium Project — about 600 km northeast of Perth, Western Australia — with the construction (now in its final stages) of a mini-pilot plant in Canada to demonstrate a…
Scientists at Kao Corp. (KAO; Tokyo, Japan; chemical.kao.com) have discovered an enzyme that has the potential for producing large quantities of medium-chain (C12) fatty acids (FAs), which are the main components of natural oils, such as palm-kernel and coconut-palm oils.…
Last month in Ovadan-Depe, Turkmenistan, construction began on a plant that will produce gasoline from natural gas. When the plant starts up approximately four years from now, it will produce 15,500 barrels per day (bbl/d) of synthetic gasoline using the…
Researchers from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Tsukuba City, Japan; www.aist.go.jp), with support from New Energy and Industry Technology Development Org. (NEDO; Kawasaki City; Japan; www.nedo.go.jp) have developed a technology to efficiently synthesize tetra-alkoxy-silane —…
Algae Systems LLC (Daphne, Ala.; www.algaesystems.com) has inaugurated a demonstration plant that integrates municipal wastewater treatment with the cultivation of biofuel-producing algae. Pretreated and disinfected municipal wastewater is passed to Algae Systems offshore floating-bag photobioreactors (PBRs), which are located in…
A step closer to bio-based acrylic acid Last month, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com), Cargill (Minneapolis, Minn.; www.cargill.com) and Novozymes (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) achieved another milestone in the joint development of technologies to produce acrylic acid from renewable resources.…
A bioreactor technology for removing organic and inorganic contaminants from industrial wastewater has been commercially launched by developer Honeywell and its subsidiary UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com). The launch is part of a wider initiative by UOP to respond…