India holds large reserves of low-grade sulfide copper ore containing 0.3 wt.% copper, which cannot be processed through conventional routes since the cut-off grade for treatment in concentrators is about 0.45 wt.%. India is in short supply of copper and…
Electrochemical and chemical-precipitation technology from New Sky Energy (Boulder, Colo.; www.newskyenergy.com) allows the conversion of salty wastewater and CO2 from fluegas into valuable process chemicals, such as soda ash, calcium carbonate, sulfuric acid, bleach and other chemicals. New Sky’s customizable…
Metals recovery Dinnissen Process Technology B.V. (Sevenum, The Netherlands; www.dinnissen.nl) has developed a purpose-built system to recover valuable metals — such as chrome and molybdenum — from highly viscous residual waste from the petrochemical industry. Such waste, which is often…
At Achema 2012 (June 18–22; Frankfurt am Main, Germany), Union Engineering A/S (Fredericia, Denmark; www.union.dk) will be presenting its patented FlashCO2 process — both at the exhibition (Hall 9.1, Stand E29) and in a congress lecture (Monday, June 18th at…
The research groups of Masahiro Miyauchi at Tokyo Institute of Technology (www.eim.ceram.titech.ac.jp) and Kazuhiko Hashimoto at the University of Tokyo (www.light.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp) have developed a photocatalyst that is highly active for the destruction of volatile organic compoiunds (VOCs) using visible radiation.…
A partnership between Australian research agency CSIRO (Melbourne, Australia; www.csiro.au) and Lonza Group Ltd. (Basel, Switzerland; www.lonza.com), aims to market new insect silk products globally. Potential applications of insect silk include composite fibers for the aviation and marine industries, and…
This month, Borregaard Industries Ltd. (Sarpsborg, Norway; www.borregaard.com) will start up an integrated, pilot-demonstration plant to further develop a new pretreatment process for converting biomass into lignin and fermentable sugars. Located at the company’s R&D Center in Sarpsborg, the pilot…
A research team from the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, and the School of Chemistry and Physics, the University of Adelaide, South Australia (www.adelaide.edu.au) has combined suspended-core microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) with photoinduced electron transfer (PET) to demonstrate a…
A catalyst in which iron atoms are complexed with the ligand pyridine diimine (PDI) has shown promise as a replacement for high-cost platinum-based catalysts for industrial olefin-hydrosilylation reactions. Developed by the research group of Paul Chirik at Princeton University (www.…
Double-effect coating Researchers at the Leibniz-Instutut für Neue Materialien GmbH (INM; Saarbrücken, Germany; www.inm-gmbh.de) have developed a nanocomposite coating that simultaneously protects against corrosion while having lubrication properties similar to grease and oil. The new material is suitable for coating…