An ExxonMobil Corp. (Spring, Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com) adhesive-resin finishing facility in Baton Rouge, La. has become the first commercial process-manufacturing facility to be controlled by an open, standards-based process automation system. This is a departure from the closed, proprietary systems currently…
A pilot plant intended to manufacture silica aerogel products for different applications, including spray insulation, is being planned by the company Aeroskin Tech AG (Zurich, Switzerland; www.aeroskintech.com). Aerogels are dried gels that maintain their volume when dried, and have nanoscale…
When temperatures drop, industrial water heating becomes a challenge. Maintaining precise outlet temperatures is critical in processing, and Hydro-Thermal’s Direct Steam Injection technology ensures instant, on-demand heating. This allows faster startups and reduces downtime—even in extreme cold. Unlike heat exchangers,…
Captura Corp. (Pasadena, Calif.) announced the start of operations at its latest pilot plant, capable of capturing 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually. Located in Kona, Hawaii, and developed in partnership with multinational energy company Equinor, the facility marks…
Thyssenkrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany), in partnership with Novonesis Group (Lyngby, Denmark), announced the launch of their joint offering: Uhde Enzymatic Esterification. This new technology bears the potential to revolutionize ester production by significantly reducing energy consumption and enhancing product…
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,…
Thin gold films offer a broad range of benefits for electronics due to their high electrical conductivity and transparency. Current manufacturing methods are unable to achieve gold films thinner than 10 nm, and are also limited in the area and…
The wide range of performance properties of polyurethane foams makes them essential in many consumer goods. Thus, there is much effort going into creating a more environmentally friendly production process for polyurethane’s main building blocks, polyols and isocyanates. While much…
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…