GE Power & Water (Trevose, Pa.; www.ge.com) has introduced a novel, dual-pronged approach to corrosion inhibition for boiler and steam-condensate systems in petroleum refineries. The technology is designed to prevent attack by acidic species on steam-system surfaces, providing reliability to…
New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki City; www.nedo.go.jp) and Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, both Japan; panasonic.net) have begun testing a new type of power-generation system that uses anisotropic solid-state composites that produce an electrical current when a temperature…
Ammonia is a promising candidate for scrubbing carbon dioxide from fluegas, since each ammonia molecule can absorb one molecule of CO2, whereas amine absorbers require two molecules to do the same job. However, because ammonia is volatile, the fluegas must…
What is said to be the world’s first commercial alkylation plant to use a solid acid catalyst is scheduled for startup early next year by Shandong Wonfull Petrochemical Group Co. (Zibo, China). The plant, which will produce 100,000 ton/yr of…
The temperature and moisture level of the air being drawn into the front end of ammonia, nitrogen, nitric acid or other plant air compressors directly impacts the yield from the process, and chilling is a way to debottleneck air production…
A demonstration plant in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, will produce hydrochloric acid and iron pellets from the iron-chloride leach liquor generated by the production of synthetic rutile, the common mineral form of titanium dioxide. The plant will utilize a…
Nippon Paper Industries Co. (Nippon Paper; Tokyo; www.nipponpapergroup.com) is constructing a verification plant for the production of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) at the Chemical Div. of its Iwakuni Mill. Scheduled to start up in October, the facility will have a production…
Tantalum and niobium, which are often found in complex ores, are essentially chemically inert metals whose recovery involves some harsh measures: typically dissolution of the metals concentrate in a mixture of concentrated hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids, followed by solvent extraction…
An improved H2SO4 process developed by CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has now been licensed to three companies, all in China. The first licensee was Ningbo Haiyue New Material Co. Ltd., which is building a 600,000-m.t./yr plant near Ningbo City,…
China’s largest private chemical EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor, Wison Engineering Ltd. (Wison; Shanghai; www.wison.com) has recently introduced details about its proprietary butadiene technology, which is set for commercialization. The process aims to meet the anticipated growth in annual butadiene…