ODC Technology Last month, Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.covestro.com) started up a new world-scale facility for the production of chlorine in Tarragona, Spain. It is the first world-scale production plant for chlorine based upon the oxygen-depolarized cathode (ODC) technology invented…
Processes that capture carbon dioxide from industrial fluegas and simultaneously convert it into useful chemicals are desirable because they offer an opportunity to produce CO2-derived chemicals more efficiently and economically than conventional approaches, where costs are driven up by the…
Coil coating is a continuous process for producing prepainted sheets of metal (steel or aluminum), which can then be fabricated into various building and other materials. Because organic coating materials are used, the process requires substantial energy for the curing…
Flashing occurs when the pressure of a fluid passing through a valve is lower than the same substance’s vapor pressure. This causes the fluid to boil — otherwise known as “flashing.” “By reducing flow capacity and eroding the valve itself,…
When searching for catalysts for the energy transition, materials consisting of at least five elements — so-called high-entropy alloys (HEAs) — are considered highly promising. But to find the right combination of elements and composition ratios needed for the best…
The production of substitute (or synthetic) natural gas (SNG) by methanation of CO2 with hydrogen is energy intensive and also requires a purification step to remove the byproduct water and remaining reactants. To address these issues, researchers at The Swiss…
Linde Engineering (Pullach, Germany) has signed an agreement with BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a synthesis gas (syngas) plant in Zhanjiang, China. “Linde Engineering’s one-stop solution for BASF combines state-of-the-art technology with a…
For the first time, a quantum-computing-inspired tool has been used for catalyst discovery — specifically for the investigation of a new catalyst for the production of hydrogen via electrolysis. Created jointly by scientists from Fujitsu Ltd. (Tokyo; www.fujitsu.com) and the…
Blue Planet Systems (Los Gatos, Calif.; www.blueplanetsystems.com) and Sulzer Chemtech Ltd. (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzer.com) have announced a partnership to accelerate development of Blue Planet’s process for mineralizing carbon dioxide gas into construction aggregate for concrete. By sequestering CO2 into the…
Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS; Ibaraki, Japan; www.nims.go.jp), along with Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.; www.harvard.edu) and the University of Connecticut (Storrs, Conn.; www.uconn.edu), have designed a new imaging device that uses structural colors — visible colors that change…