Industrial designer Tore Christian Bjørsvik at Sintef Health Research (Trondheim, Norway; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-545) has developed a safety helmet with a soft, flexible inner layer that instantly becomes a hard shock absorber if the helmet is subjected to impact. The helmet also…
The Dow Performance Fluids, a business of Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-546) has introduced a new high-temperature cleaning solvent for cleaning polymer-process reactor vessels, pipelines, heat exchangers, pumps and other equipment impaired by polymer residue. Dow HT-Solve 515 —…
Ethanol could be produced for less than $1/gal through a new process developed by ZeaChem, Inc. (Lakewood, Colo.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-531). The company has piloted the process (flowsheet) and plans to start up a 1.5-million-gal/yr full-scale demonstration plant at the end of…
Last month, a Dutch consortium composed of Akzo Nobel (Amsterdam, Netherlands; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7473-549), energy firm Essent, algae producers Ingrepo and Wageningen University, received a 1-million grant to investigate the potential of converting algae into feedstock for the CPI. The four-year study…
Single crystals of high-purity, anatase titanium dioxide with a high percentage of reactive (001) facets are said to have promising applications in solar cells, photonic and optoelectronic devices, sensors and photocatalysis. However, it is the (101) crystal facets of anatase…
Scientists at Rice University (Houston, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-547) have shown how baton-shaped nanoparticles of metal and carbon can trap oil droplets in water by spontaneously assembling into tiny sacs. The particles — composed of hollow carbon nanotubes (hydrophobic) with a short…
BASF IT Services (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-533) has developed a voice-activated IT system that can be used by those involved in hazard-containment. The application was pilot tested together with BASF SE’s fire department, as part of the four-year EU project called…
Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-534) has commercialized its new Resid Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) PetroRiser technology for the production of high yields of propylene. This new resid-to-propylene technology is part of the FCC Alliance between Axens, The Shaw Group, Inc. (Baton…
Alkylglyceryl ethers (AGEs) are biodegradable nonionic surfactants with excellent foaming and moisturizing properties. Up to now, AGEs have been made in batch reactors whereby the corresponding alkyl glycidyl ether (GE) is hydrolyzed in a solvent (alcohol or ethyleneglycol monoalkyl ether)…
Current silks tend to lose performance in water and yellow in sunlight. Few of the silk-producing species of insect or spider are amenable to domestication, their silks are difficult to produce using biotechnology, and it is difficult to spin those…