Zeon Corp. (Tokyo), through its venture capital arm Zeon Ventures Inc., has invested in Aether Fuels Pte. Ltd. (Aether), a Singapore/U.S.-based startup developing a breakthrough production technology for scalable and cost-competitive sustainable liquid fuels. Alongside this investment, Zeon will proactively…
TotalEnergies SE (Paris) announces the commissioning of BioNorrois, its 8th biomethane production unit in France, located in Fontaine-le-Dun (Normandy). It will inject 153 GWh of biomethane per year into the natural gas transport network operated by NaTran equivalent to the…
Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) recently made significant progress towards its scope 1 climate neutrality goal for its Baytown, TX site. A newly commissioned project, known as NAUCI (Nitric Acid Unit Climate Initiative), reduces greenhouse gas emissions from the site’s Nitric…
LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (LYB; Rotterdam, the Netherlands) announced an investment to expand propylene production capacity at its Channelview Complex near Houston. Groundbreaking and construction are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2025, with a projected startup in late 2028.…
Breaking down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into its constituent monomers under mild conditions is a key goal of plastics recycling. Knowledge of how many naturally occurring enzymes are capable of breaking down PET, and which would be most effective in industrial…
A new thermolysis technology developed by Composite Recycling (Ecublens, Switzerland; www.composite-recycling.ch) breaks down fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) into their fundamental constituents, enabling reuse as valuable feedstock for the creation of new composite materials. “Past efforts to recycle composites have allowed waste…
Olivine, a magnesium-iron silicate mineral, is common in the earth’s subsurface, and can sometimes contain other valuable elements, such as cobalt, manganese and nickel. Olivine has been explored as a possible sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide in carbon-capture methods that…
A pilot plant intended to manufacture silica aerogel products for different applications, including spray insulation, is being planned by the company Aeroskin Tech AG (Zurich, Switzerland; www.aeroskintech.com). Aerogels are dried gels that maintain their volume when dried, and have nanoscale…
Respondents to a Q4 2024 survey of industrial leaders conducted by the ARC Advisory Group (Dedham, Mass.; www.arcweb.com) ranked artificial intelligence (AI) first, by a relatively large margin, among the digital technologies that they expect to be the most impactful…
Despite the abundance of nitrogen and hydrogen, industrial ammonia synthesis remains an energy-intensive process. Electrochemical methods have been suggested as potentially lower-energy alternatives to traditional ammonia synthesis, but these newer technologies often struggle with achieving key performance metrics. By integrating…