A 60% reduction in the sludge volume was achieved at the sewage treatment plant of Noboribetu City, Hokkaido, Japan, after installing a Bio-Diet SBD-1200 system from Nippon Steel Kankyo Engineering Co. (NSKE; Tokyo, www.nske.co.jp). The demonstration unit, developed at the…
A rapid pressure-swing-adsorption (rPSA) system to separate carbon dioxide from fluegas is being developed by W.R. Grace & Co. (Columbus, Md.; www.grace.com) and three partners under a $3 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov).…
The newly upgraded Earth-Rite Tellus II offers effective static earth verification for drums, IBCs and other mobile equipment in hazardous area operations. The lightweight static dissipative polyester (SDP) enclosure can be mounted in all industrial flammable or combustible atmospheres and…
The HLEL Series of emergency lighting fixtures offers a fiberglass-reinforced polyester housing that is suitable for use in indoor hazardous environments, such as oil and gas production, industrial manufacturing, wastewater treatment plants or other interior spaces where hazardous gases and…
Yesterday, U.S. District Court judge Paul Friedman denied a legal motion by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov) that would have prevented environmental groups from challenging EPA's stay of proposed changes to the Maximum Achievable Control Technology…
Codexis, Inc. (Redwood City, Calif.; www.codexis.com) and Raizen Energia S.A. (Sao Paulo, Brazil; www.raizen.com) have signed a joint development agreement to develop an improved first-generation ethanol process with enhanced performance economics. Raizen is a joint venture between Shell and Cosan,…
Chemtex (Wilmington, N.C.; www.chemtex.com) has entered into a Term Sheet Agreement with Colombiana de Biocombustibles Celulósicos (ColBiocel) for the supply of a license and associated engineering and technical services for an eighty-five thousand metric ton per year (m.t./yr) cellulosic ethanol…
A project aimed at using geothermal heat to power an electricity-producing turbine with supercritical carbon dioxide has received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov). The project also incorporates an element of CO2…
A joint venture (JV) between Vadxx Energy LLC (Akron, Ohio; www.vadxx.com) and Greenstar Recycling (Houston; www.greenstarrecycling.com) plans to start up a facility in mid-2012 to convert recovered plastics to synthetic crude oil. When complete, the facility will produce 80,000 bbl/yr…
Properly sized ejector stations can save capital costs and reduce downtime Steam-assisted, gravity-drainage (SAGD) operations employ large tanks that vent flammable and sometimes toxic gases. Safety and environmental concerns often require engineers to design vapor-recovery units (VRUs) to collect these…