Lurgi AG (Frankfurt; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-535) and the Karlsruhe Research Center (both Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-536) have signed a cooperation contract to construct a pilot plant for producing liquid fuels from biomass. As the first of three steps, Lurgi will build a €3.76-million pyrolysis…
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…
Brown coal accounts for about half the world’s coal reserves. Although it contains less ash and sulfur than bituminous, brown coal contains more water, which reduces its heating value. To take advantage of this “greener” source of fuel, Kobe Steel…
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)…