Most of today's solar cells are made from silicon wafers cut from blocks of crystals. The wafers are typically 0.2-0.25-mm thick, yet most of the photon-to-electricity conversion takes place in the outermost 0.02 mm of the wafer. In an effort…
The need to maintain and increase safety is ever-present in the chemical process industries (CPI), but what exactly constitutes safety equipment? This roundup of products covers a broad range of equipment, from data buses to non-slip footwear, whose…
Richard Milner, a Honary Fellow at CSIRO Entomology (Canberra, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6517-541), has developed a rare native fungus, Metarhizium, into an environmentally friendly control for grass-hopper-type (including locust) agricultural pests. Metarhizium is a naturally occurring soil fungus that is genetically diverse;…
Stefan Jaronoski, an insect pathologist at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (Sidney, Mont.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6517-543) has discovered that a strain of the fungus Metarhizium anisoplia is effective in killing the sugar beet root maggot. Currently,…
Biomass has come center stage in the pursuit of reduced dependence on finite - not to mention geopolitically sensitive - quantities of fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal and natural gas. And while ethanol produced from corn…
A new-type of polymer composite has recently been commercialized by Ceram Polymerik Pty Ltd. (Melbourne, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6517-533) for passive fire-protection applications. Passive fire protection consists of using a material or structure that confines fires, giving people more time to escape…
The ANSI/ISA-S84.01-1996 standard, which has guided North American users for the past decade in designing safety instrumented systems (SIS) has migrated to a new international standard based on the IEC 61511 and is now known as ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 (IEC…
Researchers from the Physics of Fluids and Biocolloids group at the University of Granada (Spain; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-549) are developing a system in which bitumen emulsifies at room temperature, which facilitates transport and allows cold application. Because the bitumen does not need…
For many years, the job of a control room operator at a petroleum refinery or chemical plant was seen as relatively simple: Keep the process running and fix it when it breaks. That perception is changing as more…
As it has for several years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) once again paid tribute early this summer to companies, as well as to an individual, for contributions to pollution prevention, via its Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards competition.…