Since the original invention of the steady-stream eyewash over 50 years ago, the accepted practice in the chemical process industries (CPI) and other industrial circles has been to flush the eyes with two, separate, arc-shaped water streams, each one flowing…
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) will form a joint venture (JV) with Ensyn Corp. (Wilmington, Del.; www.ensyn.com) to offer technology for the production of fuel oil and transportation fuels from second-generation biomass, such as forest and agricultural residues. Ensyn…
Liberty Engineering (Hamburg, N.Y.; www.libertypsa.com) has developed a bioremediation system that fully removes carcinogens from soil in 90 days. The process is based on microbial oxidation of organic compounds by petrophyllic pseudonomads in an oxygen-rich environment. The bacteria are specifically…
Azotobacter are nitrogen-fixing bacteria that do a useful job in soil by converting N 2 to ammonia. As a side reaction they also produce hydrogen, most of which they oxidize for their own energy consumption. In a project of the…
Metabolix, Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.metabolix.com) has demonstrated, in recently completed greenhouse trials, that switchgrass plants engineered using the firm’s multi-gene expression technology produced significant amounts polyhydroxybutyrate (a polyhydroxyalkanoate; PHA) bioplastics in leaf tissues. The result is said to be the…
BHR Biofuels, a subsidiary of BHR Group (Cranfield, U.K., www.bhrgroup.co.uk), has installed and demonstrated two process-intensified, full-size Biodiesel Reactor Systems at a chemical plant producing biodiesel from waste and virgin oils. The reactor systems are said to consume some 70%…
Rentech, Inc. (Los Angeles, Calif.; www.rentechinc.com) has produced its first run of jet fuel from its Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) product demonstration unit (PDU) in Commerce City, Colo. The plant produces a synthesis gas of hydrogen and carbon monoxide by steam-reforming of…
Conventional cooling systems rely on the properties of gases to cool, but common coolants are either harmful to people or the environment. A different approach is being investigated by researchers at the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Penn State University (University…
A new metal carbide F-T catalyst has been developed by Oxford Catalysts Limited (Oxford, U.K., www.oxfordcatalysts.com) for making second-generation biofuel in small-scale microchannel reactors. The catalyst was produced using the company’s patented organic matrix combustion method, which makes it possible…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen; www.evonik.com) and SolarWorld AG (Bonn, both Germany; www.solarworld.de) have opened a new solar silicon plant in Rheinfelden (Baden, Germany). As part of the joint venture (JV) Joint Solar Silicon (JSSI), the two companies are using a…