In December 2024, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, Wash.; www.pnnl.gov) announced a three-year collaborative project with vehicle-tire manufacturer Bridgestone (Tokyo, Japan; www.bridgestone.com) to scale up a thermocatalytic process for converting renewably derived ethanol to n-butene. Conventionally, n-butene is…
Developing sustainable pathways to ethylene — among the world’s most widely used chemicals — is a key element in decarbonizing the process industries. A new electrolysis technology developed by CERT Systems (Toronto, Ont., Canada; www.co2cert.com) can produce ethylene from CO2…
Desalination of seawater with reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is a key technology for addressing water scarcity issues around the globe, but seawater desalination is energy-intensive and the brine discharge can create coastal environmental problems. The company Flocean AS (Oslo, Norway;…
Nearly all ammonia is produced using methane via the Haber-Bosch process, which requires high-temperature and high-pressure operation. A new portable prototype device developed by researchers from Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.; www.stanford.edu) and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Dhahran,…
Recycling materials, such as plastics and metals, is an attractive, but challenging path toward sustainable material manufacture. Now, researchers have made a discovery that may have far-reaching implications in material manufacture by positioning carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers as a sustainable…
Construction is imminent for a carbon-capture project aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from steel production while producing carbon-neutral calcium carbonate. At the U.S. Steel (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ussteel.com) manufacturing facility in Gary, Ind., a carbon-capture system designed by CarbonFree (San Antonio,…
E-fuels company Lydian (Cambridge, Mass.) announced the successful pilot demonstration of its technology for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for commercial and defense applications. The pilot plant, which can produce up to 25 gallons of fuel per day, is located…
Syzygy Plasmonics (Houston) and Lotte Chemical (Seoul, South Korea) have commissioned and completed performance testing of the world's largest all-electric ammonia cracking system in Ulsan, South Korea with logistical support from Sumitomo Corp. of Americas (SCOA) and Sumitomo Corp. Korea.…
Water desalination plants could replace expensive chemicals with new carbon cloth electrodes that remove boron from seawater, an important step of turning seawater into safe drinking water. A study describing the new technology has been published in Nature Water by…
Levidian Nanosystems Ltd. (Cambriudge, U.K.) announced the successful installation of its patented LOOP technology at ADNOC Gas’ Habshan Gas Processing Plant in Abu Dhabi. Working in collaboration with energy technology company Baker Hughes, the installation is a world-first deployment of…