At the end of July, Renewable Capital Ltd. (London, U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-545) and Konarka Technologies, Inc. (Lowell, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-546) entered a licensing and joint-development agreement to scale up Konarka’s dye-sensitized solar-cell technology (CE, March 2004, p. 19). Renewable Capital has committed…
Last month, DynaMotive Energy Systems Corp. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-548) announced the successful completion of an industrial-scale test burn of its BioOil as a replacement for natural gas in the lime kiln of a pulp and paper mill. The testing…
This month, New Energy & Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-535), together with two companies from China, began testing a coal-liquefaction process in a 100-kg/d pilot facility at the Coal Research Center (Beijing, China). The two Chinese firms…
JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-536) has finalized a Principal Agreement for the process design, development and further collaboration with Arkenol, Inc. (Orange, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-537) for a plant to produce bioethanol from cellulose. The plant, to be located in Orange County,…
Heat transfer takes place in every plant in the chemical process industries (CPI), and in a significant proportion of individual equipment items. And of the many varieties of heat exchanger, shell-and-tube versions must surely be the most traditional.…
Forza fuel-cell power module, constructed by Nuvera Fuel Cells, Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-542) and installed by Uhdenora S.p.A. (Milan, Italy; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-543), has started operating at the chlorate production plant of Caffaro S.r.l. in Brescia, Italy. Integrating the fuel cell into…
BP Solar (Frederick; Md.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-547) has developed a new silicon growth process that is said to significantly increase the cell efficiency over traditional multicrystalline-based solar cells. Solar cells made with these so-called Mono2 wafers, together with other BP Solar advances…
Last month, Expander Energy Inc. (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-551) licensed the Carbo-V process from Choren Industries GmbH (Freiberg, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-552) for the production of synthesis gas derived from biomass. Carbo-V is a three-stage gasification process (CE, August, 2003, p. 16)…
Alfa Laval AB (Lund, Sweden; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-531) has developed a new reactor system, called Alfa Laval Plate Reactors (trademarked as ART), which combines the high-heat-transfer capabilities of plate heat exchangers with the efficient mixing and reaction control typical of microreactors into…
Last month, Clyvia Technology GmbH (Wegberg, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-548), a fully owned subsidiary of Clyvia Inc. (Las Vegas, Nev.), was granted a German patent for its proprietary fractional depolymerization process for converting waste material into heating oil and diesel fuel. The…