For separating two components with similar volatilities, extractive distillation is typically used, whereby a high-boiling, non-volatile solvent is added to "break the azeotrope" — a process that is both energy intensive and often involves the use of hazardous solvents. In…
Ultrasound has been applied, with limited success, for the remediation of contaminated soil. Up to now, the approach has been to first extract the contaminant from the soil into a liquid, which is then passed through a sono-reactor where the…
In a so-called thermoacoustic engine, researchers from the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN; Petten, Netherlands; www.ecn.nl) have achieved a record efficiency in the conversion of heat to sound, improving the existing record of 41% to 48% of the…
In late 2009, Microbia PE, Inc. (Lexington, Mass.; www.microbia-pe.com) will begin commercialization of its initial carotenoid products. Microbia plans to produce β-carotene, astaxanthin, zeaxanthin, cathaxanthin and lutein — all five carotenoid products that currently have significant commercial value. These carotenoids…
Last month, Uralchem OJSC (Moscow, Russia; www.uralchem.com) started production of a new fertilizer, called ASN 32:0:0:5, at Kirov-Chepetsk Chemical Works, OSJ. Granules of the new ASN formulation have a gradient structure with a high concentration of ammonium sulfate on the…
New MMA process Last month, the world’s first plant to produce methyl methacrylate (MMA) using the Alpha process of Lucite International Group Ltd., (Southampton, UK; www.lucite.com) started up. The 120,000-m.t./yr (metric ton per year) plant is located on Jurong Island…
Tantaline (Lyngby, Demnark; www.tantaline.com) has developed a process that creates a surface alloy of tantalum on a metal substrate (typically stainless steel). As a result, the surface acquires the corrosion resistance of tantalum — the most corrosion resistant metal commercially available…
Heavy crude UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) plans to do further development of its Catalytic Crude Upgrading (CCU) technology through an agreement with Brazil’s Petrobras (Rio de Janeiro) and Albemarle Corp. (Baton Rouge, La.). CCU is a process…
Cutler Technology Corp. (San Antonio, Tex.; www.cutler-tech.com) has launched ADMC 64, its most-advanced model-predictive controller ( CE, November 2005, p. 15). With 64-bit resolution, the device easily handles 600 coefficients with calculation times under ten seconds (on an Intel quad…
Launched at ISA Expo 2008 this month (Houston, Tex.; October 14 – 16), the ELDS line-of-sight gas detectors from Senscient, Inc. (League City, Tex.) is said to deliver three orders of magnitude better sensitivity for detecting flammable gases and false-alarm…