Click here for full pdf version of this article - includes all graphs, charts, tables, and author information Construction to begin on a large solar plant in Spain Thanks to a €171-million financing deal, construction can begin on what is…
Thanks to a €171-million financing deal, construction can begin on what is claimed to be the world’s first utility-grade solar power plant with central tower and salt receiver technology. When the so-called Gemasolar plant — located in Fuentes de Andalucia,…
Mitsunori Shimura and colleagues at the R&D Center of Chiyoda Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.chiyoda.co.jp) have developed a new catalyst for producing a synthesis gas (syngas; hydrogen and carbon monoxide) from steam reforming of methane. The catalyst consists of precious metals…
Lurgi GmbH (Frankfurt, Germany; www.lurgi.com) is building a pilot plant to demonstrate the viability of its three-stage bioliq process for producing liquid fuels from biomass. The pilot plant — an entrained-flow gasifier for the production of synthesis gas — will…
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…
QuantumSphere, Inc. (Santa Ana, Calif.; www.qsinano.com) has filed a key patent for technology it has developed, which extends the capacity of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries up to five times, thus offering the potential to increase the operating life of portable consumer…
Last month, what is claimed as the first pilot plant in the world to demonstrate carbon-dioxide capture and storage (CCS) based on oxy-combustion came onstream next to Vattenfall´s 1,600-MW, lignite-fired Schwarze Pumpe power plant in Germany. The 30-MW pulverized-coal demonstration…