Latest News: Technologies
Making formic acid by artificial photosynthesis
For the first time, an organic compound has been synthesized from water, carbon dioxide and sunlight — without any other external energy or reagents. The achievement, which was demonstrated by researchers at Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc. (Toyota…
World’s highest-purity lithium plant announces commercial launch
A facility that produces high-purity lithium carbonate for use in the growing market for electrolytes in electric-vehicle batteries has begun commercial operations in Imperial Valley, Calif. The 500-ton/yr plant, operated by Simbol Materials (Pleasanton, Calif.; www.simbolmaterials.com), is the only producer…
Supercritical water process converts biomass to sugars
Sugar is a critical feedstock for many emerging bio-based-chemical and biofuel processes, but harvesting sugar from low-value, nonfood biomass cost-effectively and at large scale remains a challenge. Renmatix Inc. (King of Prussia, Pa.; www.renmatix.com) has developed a process that uses…
November Chementator Briefs
New block copolymer Nexar is the tradename of a block copolymer product recently commercialized by Kraton Performance Polymers (Houston; www.kraton.com) that has unique water-transport properties. Building on its earlier work in anionic polymerization of styrene-butadiene block copolymers, the company…
Predictive process control at a refinery wastewater treatment plant
To date, the difficult-to-treat contaminants and their related biological inhibition in petroleum refinery wastewater have defied efforts to bring predictive and mathematical process control to biological wastewater-treatment systems. Now, for the first time, engineers at Refinery Water Engineering & Associates…
A new catalyst for asymmetric-transfer-hydrogenation reactions
The Fine Chemicals div. of Takasago International Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.takasago.com) has commercialized Deneb: Oxo-Tethered Ruthenium (II) Complex, which shows higher catalytic activities compared to conventional RuCl (arene)(N-sulfonylated diamine) catalyst systems. The higher activity enables a reduction in catalyst loading…
Waste-to-ethanol plant on pace for mid-2012 operation
Impending standards requiring that cellulosic ethanol be used in gasoline blending have focused attention on building a capacity for bioethanol from non-food sources. In a development that may begin to meet that need, a plant employing a unique method for…
U.S. production is scheduled for a critical metal
China produces about 98% of the world’s electrolytic manganese metal (EMM), a vital ingredient used in specialty steels, aluminum and electronics. In contrast, the U.S. produces no EMM, says Nick Weir, an executive with U.S. American Manganese Inc. (AMY; White…
Slash sewage-sludge volumes with this add-on digester
A 60% reduction in the sludge volume was achieved at the sewage treatment plant of Noboribetu City, Hokkaido, Japan, after installing a Bio-Diet SBD-1200 system from Nippon Steel Kankyo Engineering Co. (NSKE; Tokyo, www.nske.co.jp). The demonstration unit, developed at the…
A fast way to recover CO2
A rapid pressure-swing-adsorption (rPSA) system to separate carbon dioxide from fluegas is being developed by W.R. Grace & Co. (Columbus, Md.; www.grace.com) and three partners under a $3 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov).…