To decarbonize steel production and its high carbon dioxide emissions, Fraunhofer researchers, TS Elino GmbH (Dürren; www.elino.de) and Salzgitter AG (all Germany; www.salzgitter-ag.com) are working on converting an existing steel mill to climate-neutral production methods. The aim is to produce…
CO2 to CO SK Innovation Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, an R&D organization of SK Innovation Co. Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea; www.skinnovation.com), has successfully manufactured about 1 kg/d of CO using diatomic catalyst (DAC) technology, which selectively converts CO2…
Capturing natural gas from petroleum drilling wells is economically challenging, but would have positive environmental impacts because it would eliminate the need for flaring and could allow the hydrocarbons to be converted into useful chemicals. Now, research led by chemists…
The extremely high material purity demanded for conventional lithium-ion battery manufacturing creates considerable costs for transporting and refining lithium and other raw materials. Through the development of a single-step electroplating process that uses lower-purity raw materials and a nanostructured-foam electrode…
In November 2023, Heirloom Carbon Technologies (Tracy, Calif.; www.heirloomcarbon.com) unveiled the United States’ first commercial direct air capture (DAC) facility, which can capture up to 1,000 ton/yr of CO2. The process first uses renewable energy to remove CO2 from limestone…
In November 2023, the first commercial test was initiated for a novel, fouling-immune membrane for brackish-water reverse osmosis (BWRO) applications through an early-access program. Membrane developer ZwitterCo (Woburn, Mass.; www.zwitterco.com) says its membrane is fouling-immune in cases where fouling of…
Metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) have garnered considerable attention as candidate materials for a number of applications, such as gas storage, molecular separation and catalysis, because their organic and inorganic components are highly tunable at the molecular level. Since being introduced…
A new plasma-based technology is being touted as a more sustainable method for textile finishing, including water-intensive dyeing and coating processes. The Ausora process, developed by Xefco Pty. Ltd. (Eveleigh, Australia; www.xefco.com), in partnership with the Recycling and Clean Energy…
Metal components made with laser powder-bed fusion — an important additive manufacturing process — must be qualified for use in critical applications, but the qualification relies on expensive non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. In-process monitoring offers a less expensive alternative, but…
Leather Tanning Trumpler GmbH & Co. KG (Worms, Germany; www.trumpler.com) and Archroma (Pratteln, Switzerland; www.archroma.com) have developed a new leather-production process that can be used to produce high-performance leather in a more eco-friendly and cost-efficient way. The new process, DyTan,…