Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, www.mhi.co.jp) says it has established technology to produce bioethanol for automobile use by using soft-cellulose, such as wheat straw and rice straw, as raw materials. MHI estimates the fuel cost for a full-scale production…
A novel method for treating industrial liquid waste employs supercritical water infused with oxygen to destroy organic compounds. Developed by Innoveox (Paris; www.innoveox.com) and based on technology patented by the French government research organization CNRS (www.cnrs.fr), supercritical water oxidation (SCWO)…
A team from CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (Melbourne, Australia; www.csiro.au) has developed a new technique for growing smart materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which can be used in pollution control, or as catalysts, or for transporting drugs in…
Last month, construction was completed on the world’s first commercial plant to produce a next-generation solid fuel, called Bio-cokes, at Takatsuki, Japan. The renewable material is produced from forest residues and can be used as an alternative to coal-based coke…
A team led by Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu) researcher Michael Deem has assembled a database of 2.6 million possible unique zeolites — porous silicate minerals often used as catalysts or molecular sieves. The database of potential structures could inform efforts…
Underground pipes A hand-held device for locating buried pipe will be commercialized by Sensit Technologies (Valparaiso, Ind.; www.gasleaksensors.com) under license from Gas Technology Institute (GTI, Des Plaines, Ill.; gastechnology.org.). GTI says the technology is expected to save industry millions…
Scaleup is set for two technologies that facilitate the capture of carbon dioxide from fluegas by substituting oxygen for combustion air. Oxycombustion, as it is called, results in a much smaller fluegas stream, containing up to 90% CO2; part of…
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL; Livermore, Calif.; www.llnl.gov) have created a nanocrystalline diamond aerogel. The new aerogel was produced by compressing a standard carbon-based aerogel precursor in a laser-heated diamond anvil cell, which consists of two opposing diamonds.…
A freeze-drying system recently commercialized by ULVAC, Inc. (Chigasaki, Japan; www.ulvac.co.jp) produces spherical particles by spraying a solution into a vacuum chamber. The approach has numerous advantages over conventional freeze-drying, and can be used for generating dry powders in the…
By immobilizing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within polymer membrane pores, scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT; Newark, N.J.; www.njit.edu) were able to significantly improve the efficiency of desalination via a membrane distillation process. Somenath Mitra and colleagues at…