Latest News: Technologies
September Chementator briefs
Pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals often incorporate a fluorine atom within their molecular structure to improve properties, such as keeping the body from metabolizing a drug too rapidly. However, adding a fluorine to an aromatic ring at a late stage of the…
New heating technique improves zeolite membrane performance
Adding a rapid heat-treatment step to the process of making zeolite membranes improves separation performance by eliminating grain boundary defects, according to researchers from the University of Minnesota (UMN; Minneapolis, Minn.; www.umn.edu), who published their study in the July 31…
Pt-free catalysts promise to lower fuel-cell costs
Showa Denko K.K. (Tokyo; www.sdk.co.jp/html/english) has developed a platinum-substitute catalyst system for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) under the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization’s (NEDO; Kawasaki, Japan) project led by professor Kenichiro Ota of Yokohama National University. The…
Reducing the Pt load promises to reduce PEFC costs
A technique for making PEFC electrodes with one fourth the amount of platinum catalyst compared to conventional PEFCs has been developed by Hosokawa Micron Corp. (Osaka, Japan; www.hosokawamicron.co.jp/en) in collaboration with professors Kiyoshi Kanamura, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and Makio Naitou,…
This process may produce electricity from low-temperature geothermal resources
The world has vast geothermal resources in the temperature range of 150–250°F, but these temperatures are too low for economical exploitation, using today’s technology. A process that could change the benchmark is being developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL,…
Fast digestion makes better use of municipal sludge
The use of residual sludge from municipal sewage plants as fertilizer in agriculture is controversial (due to heavy metals and other pollutants), and slurry can no longer be disposed of in landfills in many countries. A less expensive alternative to…
An activated carbon for picking up heavy metals
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS, Beltsville, Md.; www.ars.usda.gov) has received a patent on a process for producing activated carbon from poultry litter, which consists of bedding materials such as sawdust and peanut shells, along with droppings and feathers. U.S.-grown broiler…
Scaleup for a downer FCC process
In October, Nippon Oil Corp. (Tokyo, Japan;www.eneos.co.jp) will start constructing a high-severity fluidized-catalytic cracking (HS-FCC) unit, the first in the world that can produce large amounts of propylene from heavy fuel oils. The unit, located at Mizushima Refinery (Kurashiki-City), will…
Diamond lubricant cuts friction and increases equipment life
The lifetime of steel bearings can be extended by up to eight times by a new synthetic diamond lubricant, according to its developer, NanoLube, Inc. (Lombard, Ill.; www.diamondlube.com). The lubricant consists of 0.1–4-nm diamond spheres that are dispersed in a…
Making fine particles of inhalable drugs
A team from the School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia; www.unsw.edu.au), has developed a process for the micronization of insulin called Arise (Atomized Rapid Injection for Solvent Extraction). According to BioParticle…