Thin gold films offer a broad range of benefits for electronics due to their high electrical conductivity and transparency. Current manufacturing methods are unable to achieve gold films thinner than 10 nm, and are also limited in the area and…
One of the aspects of my job that I really enjoy is keeping in touch with new and advanced technologies emerging from the chemical process industries (CPI) — an interest that traces back to my roots as an R&D engineer.…
Recycling materials, such as plastics and metals, is an attractive, but challenging path toward sustainable material manufacture. Now, researchers have made a discovery that may have far-reaching implications in material manufacture by positioning carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers as a sustainable…
Construction is imminent for a carbon-capture project aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from steel production while producing carbon-neutral calcium carbonate. At the U.S. Steel (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ussteel.com) manufacturing facility in Gary, Ind., a carbon-capture system designed by CarbonFree (San Antonio,…
Gas compressibility can lead to choked flow in piping systems. Presented here is an overview of choked-flow geometries in pipes, and examples of how choked flow arises in different pipe layouts The more things change, the more they stay the…
The potential of membrane technology to unlock hybrid and scalable carbon capture, combined with results from early field trials, suggest that advanced membranes will play a crucial role in enabling more widespread adoption of decarbonization strategies It is a truth…
Desalination of seawater with reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is a key technology for addressing water scarcity issues around the globe, but seawater desalination is energy-intensive and the brine discharge can create coastal environmental problems. The company Flocean AS (Oslo, Norway;…
Sinamics G220 (photo) is a new multi-purpose, adjustable-speed drive that features built-in technology to reduce harmonics by up to 97% — without the need for an a.c. line reactor or d.c. choke. Sinamics G220 drives have an integrated web server…
The Helix flexible screw conveyor (photo) features a helicoid screw that rotates within a fixed tube to transport materials efficiently from one point to another. It supports horizontal conveying up to 80 ft and vertical discharge heights of up to…
Nearly all ammonia is produced using methane via the Haber-Bosch process, which requires high-temperature and high-pressure operation. A new portable prototype device developed by researchers from Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.; www.stanford.edu) and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Dhahran,…