Last month, Benefuel, Inc. (Mt. Prospect, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-533) established an exclusive global agreement with Süd-Chemie India Pvt. Ltd. (SCIL; New Delhi) whereby SCIL will manufacture proprietary solid-acid catalysts for Benefuel’s biodiesel production facilities around the world. The patent-pending catalysts —…
Nanostructured microporous carbons containing well-dispersed metal nanoparticles have the potential to improve the performance of fuel cells or catalysis. However, traditional techniques for embedding metal particles in porous carbons (post-synthesis treatment either by impregnation, adsorption, or ion exchange) can lead…
Johnson ElectroMechanical Systems, Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-536) in conjunction with professor Heshmat Aglan of Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, Ala.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-537) has received a $75,000 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.) to further develop the firm’s solid-state heat…
Biotechnology samples, such as proteins, nucleic acids, biological specimens and pharmaceuticals, are typically stored frozen to extend their shelf life. However, a problem that has plagued researchers for decades is that the buffers used to maintain the pH of the…
Airborne contaminants can be identified within 2 – 3 s with a new sensor developed by researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara and Stanford University (Calif.). The researchers have founded a company, SpectraFluidics, Inc. (Santa Barbara; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-539) to commercialize…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-533) is marketing a new process that captures carbon dioxide from flue gas (FG) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The KM-CDR process uses a proprietary amine-based solvent (KS-1) in a packed column to…
Metallic nanoparticles are usually produced by wet chemical methods, often using toxic and flammable substances, or by physical methods such as evaporation and laser ablation. A group from the Laboratory for Sustainable Technology, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, at…
A prototype solar reactor that will break carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen, or split water into hydrogen and oxygen, will be started up this spring by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, N.M.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-535). The ultimate goal of…
A method for the purification of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in four sequential steps — oxidative pretreatment, acid treatment, silica dissolution, and froth flotation — has been proposed by a team from the Petroleum and Petrochemical College, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok,…
Researchers from the University of Glasgow (U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-539) have designed a device that can detect pollutants, then generate its own electricity to power an early warning system. The self-powered sensor consists of a biosensor with genetically engineered microbes. When the…