A new class of adhesives being developed by the startup gluECO Adhesives LLC (Ashburnham, Mass.; www.glueco-adhesives.com) is based on corn proteins and has a host of environmentally friendly properties, such as biodegradability and the ability to be easily removed in…
Biomethane Last month, NextChem, a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. (Rome, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.com) was awarded a contract by ENGIE subsidiary Storengy (Bois-Colombes Cedex, France; www.storengy.com) to perform an advanced basic-engineering study for a plant that will produce second-generation biomethane from…
Circular dichroism (CD) is the established method for distinguishing between enantiomers — the optical isomers of molecules that are mirror images of each other. In this approach, circularly polarized light is passed through the sample and is absorbed differently by…
Last month, operation began at Polar Night Energy Oy’s (Tampere, Finland; www.polarnightenergy.com) first commercial sand-based thermal-energy storage system. The thermal storage system, which is located at the Vatajankoski power plant, is now producing low-emission district heating to the city of…
Countercurrent heat-exchange with difficult slurries, such as those of mineral ore or stringy vegetables, has not been possible because suspended solids pack and foul the shell of shell-and-tube designs and plug the passages in plate-and-frame units. Now, a recently patented…
X-Materials (Orlando, Fla.; www.x-materials.com), the advanced materials division of Semplastics Inc., has developed a method for manufacturing a coal-containing ceramic polymer-composite material that is being used to make building materials, such as roofing tiles, as well as other products. According…
Cellulosic ethanol Clariant AG (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) has produced the first commercial cellulosic ethanol at its sunliquid production plant in Podari, Romania. The entire offtake is contracted with a multi-year agreement to Shell. Over the last six months, the plant…
A new membrane for separating emulsions is being fabricated using recycled carbon-fiber production scraps from aerospace manufacturing. “We think this is the first membrane of its type to be constructed from recycled carbon fibers,” explains Shuaifei Zhao, senior research fellow…
Biogas plants play an important role in defossilization — anaerobic bacteria in these plants break down biomass to form biogas which, on average, comprises up to 60% methane and more than 40% CO2. While the biogas is used to generate…
Platinum is widely used for many catalytic reactions, and because the precious metal is so expensive, efforts have been ongoing to reduce the amount of Pt required to perform reactions. Among these efforts are the use of nano-dispersions, clusters and…