Latest News: Technologies
Chementator: A palladium catalyst makes primary amines in aqueous NH3
Primary amines are made in high yield by a palladium-catalyzed allylic amination reaction developed by Shu Kobayashi, a chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo (Japan; www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp.). The reaction uses aqueous ammonia as the nitrogen source — the first time…
Chementator: Optical fiber sensing gets an NSF boost
Last January, Chiral Photonics, Inc. (Pine Brook, N.J.; www.chiralphotonics.com) was awarded $500,000 in a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF; Washington, D.C.). The grant will be used to develop a new optical-fiber-sensor platform…
Cut installation costs in half with this orifice flowmeter
ABB Instrumentation (Warminster, Pa.; www.abb.com/instrumentation) has cut the cost of installing orifice-plate flowmeters by up to half with the launch of its OriMaster compact orifice DP flowmeter. The latest in the company’s FlowMaster range, the OriMaster comes fully factory configured…
Chementator: EPA proposes national reporting system for greenhouse gases
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Washington D.C.) plans to set up the first U.S. national system for reporting emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The proposal marks the first step toward a program for climate control. "Through this…
April chementator briefs
Calibration-free pH The world’s first continuously self-calibrating pH measurement system was previewed at the Interphex show in New York last month by Sensorin (Burlingame, Calif; www.sensorin.com). According to the manufacturer, all currently available pH sensors including glass, optical and ion-selective…
Chementator: This new crystallizer reduces damage to larger crystals
With the exception of Oslo-type crystallizers, the main commercial crystallizers are agitated systems that use an agitator [agitated tank or draft-tube baffle (DTB)] or a circulation pump [forced circulation (FC) crystallizers]. In such systems, however, large crystals become damaged by…
Chementator: Sonopolymerization as a means to manufacture composite nanoparticles
Many methods have been developed for the encapsulation of "active" materials within a carrier nanoparticle, such as a polymer. These composite structures can be used in many biomedical, cosmetics, and food processing applications for the controlled release of pharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals,…
Chementator: A more efficient way to extract energy from coal
A process that produces hydrogen from coal with close to 80% energy conversion efficiency, plus coproduction of a carbon-dioxide-rich stream for sequestration, is being developed at Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio; www.osu.edu). This compares with around 60% conversion efficiency for…
Chementator: Multiscale reactors come of age for making fine chemicals
In the framework of the Impulse project (Integrated Multiscale Process Units with Locally Structured Elements; CE, April 2005, p. 19), researchers from the Industrial Chemistry Group at RWTH Aachen University (Germany; www.itmc.rwth-aachen.de) have developed a continuous production plant capable of…
Chementator: A process to make butadiene from under-utilized cracker C4 fractions
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; Tokyo, Japan; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) has developed a new technology for producing 1,3-butadiene (butadiene) from waste butenes using a self-developed, proprietary catalyst. The process has been pilot tested (200-ton/yr capacity) at MCC’s Mizushima site in Japan, and the…