Processing & Handling
Ammonia from biomass
SynGest, Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.; www.syngest.com) plans to commercialize a process for the production of ammonia from biomass by the fall of 2011. The first plant, to be located in Menlo, Iowa, will convert 150,000 ton/yr of corncobs into 50,000…
A better way to make efficient catalysts
A new procedure for making uniform, metallic nanoparticles has been developed by the research group of Kousuke Mori, an associate professor at Osaka University (www.mat.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp), with support from New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki, both Japan). The…
Spinning yarns of CNTs
The exceptional properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), such as high tensile strength and high thermal and electrical conductivities, have suggested a number of applications, including lightweight materials for ballistics protection, actuators for muscles or artificial muscles, filaments for light sources,…
Alkaline-earth-based catalysts for C–C bond formation
Salts of alkaline-earth metals have been shown to catalyze reactions for the selective formation of carbon-carbon bonds, by chemistry professor Shu Kobayashi and colleagues at the University of Tokyo (www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp). The research, supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency…
Chementator: High-throughput screening accelerates glycerol-to-chemicals research
Arkema (Colomes, France; www.arkema.com) and hte (Heidelberg, Germany; www.hte-company.de) have successfully concluded a research collaboration aimed at identifying new catalysts for the conversion of glycerol — a byproduct of biodiesel production — to acrolein (2-propenal) and acrylic acid. The collaboration,…
Chementator: A palladium catalyst makes primary amines in aqueous NH3
Primary amines are made in high yield by a palladium-catalyzed allylic amination reaction developed by Shu Kobayashi, a chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo (Japan; www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp.). The reaction uses aqueous ammonia as the nitrogen source — the first time…
Hydraulic Institute seeks input on ANSI pump standards
The Hydraulic Institute (HI; Parsippany, N.J.; www.pumps.org), under the approval of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI; Washington, D.C.; www.ansi.org), is seeking qualified individuals in North America to participate in the review process for the draft of two updated standards:…
Energy Efficiency in Steam Systems
In today’s typical process plants, preventing steam loss and improving condensate return are key opportunities to make a process more energy efficient. To be the most effective, steam generally needs to be dry (such as for process usage), or superheated…
Optimizing Pumping Systems
Interest in energy efficiency is not a fad. The economics of industrial production, the limitations of global energy supply and the realities of environmental conservation will be enduring themes for decades, if not the millennia. As energy costs increase, pump…
Chementator: Sonopolymerization as a means to manufacture composite nanoparticles
Many methods have been developed for the encapsulation of "active" materials within a carrier nanoparticle, such as a polymer. These composite structures can be used in many biomedical, cosmetics, and food processing applications for the controlled release of pharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals,…