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Chementator: Starch-based additives improve paper quality, reduces weight

The Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT; Rajamäki; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-542) has developed a process to make natural paper additives from starch, which can be used for making high-quality paper that is completely recycleable. The starch-based pigments can be used in conventional…

Chementator: Semi-renewable plastic

BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-546) has developed a biodegradable plastic that contains 45% polylactic acid, a biodegradable polymer made from corn (CE, November 2003, pp. 42, 43). The remaining component is BASF’s biodegradable plastic, Ecoflex, which is derived from petrochemicals.…

Chementator: This end-of-pipe process treats all fluegas pollutants…

This month, the first field tests will be conducted on a pilot plant, developed by WOW Energy, Inc. (Sugar Land, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-534), to remove mercury, oxides of sulfur (SOx) and nitrogen (NOx), particulates, heavy metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)…

Chementator: …and this process makes power from waste heat  

WOW Energy (see item above) has also developed a patented process that uses commercial, off-the shelf components to reduce the FG temperature to near ambient, while converting the extracted thermal energy into electricity. The cascading closed-loop cycle (CCLC) does this…

Chementator: Smelling false alarms

An electronic nose capable of distinguishing between cigarette smoke and smoke from an office or factory fire has been developed by a consortium of nine European companies and research institutions, with funding from the EU’s IST (Information Society Technologies) program.…

Chementator: Biodiesel

Lurgi AG (Frankfurt, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-549) is building the world’s largest biodiesel plant for Neckermann-Renewables GmbH (Würzburg, Germany). When the E64-million facility starts up in December at Piesteritz, Germany, it will produce more than 200,000 m.t./yr of biodiesel from rapeseed. The…

Chementator: Purifying ethanol without distillation

Ultrasound Brewery Co. (Naruto, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-535) has developed a process that separates the water from dilute solutions of alcohol to achieve 99.5%, without using conventional evaporation or distillation. The company has tested the process in a pilot plant that produces…

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Chementator: Controlling free-radical polymerizations

Arkema, Inc. (formerly Atofina Chemicals, Inc.; King of Prussia, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-536) has commercialized a patented technology, based on nitroxide compounds, which can be used to control free-radical polymerization reactions. Each alkoxyamine of the BlocBuilder technology contains a functional group for…

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Chementator: A demonstration for an integrated MTO and olefin-cracking process

Total Petrochemicals (Brussels; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-531) and UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-532) plan to construct at Total Petrochemicals site in Feluy, Belgium, a demonstration plant consisting of a UOP/Hydro methanol-to-olefin (MTO) process integrated with a Total Petrochemicals/UOP Olefin Cracking process (OCP)…

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Chementator: A new anode may double the energy density of Li-ion batteries

Using lithium metal as the anode of secondary Li-ion batteries would double the energy density of conventional batteries, which use anodes based on carbon. However, Li-based anodes suffer from the problem of dendrite crystal formation during the charge and discharge…