Bayer MaterialScience AG (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6900-541) is opening a second production facility for Baytubes, its carbon nanotubes product, at H.C. Starck GmbH (Laufenburg, Germany). When combined with the existing pilot-production plant, the new, 30-m.t./yr facility will increase the site’s…
Rigorous temperature control is required for performing selective catalytic reactions, such as hydrogenation and oxidation (ethylene oxide production, for example), and in reactions where the chemical equilibrium is strongly temperature dependent (Claus sulfur recovery or the CO-shift reaction, for example).…
Click here for full pdf version of this article - includes all graphs, charts, tables, and author information  This fourth in a series of articles* on piping for process plants examines two topics that may, at first, seem to…
Mixing is one of the oldest unit operations in the chemical process industries (CPI) and can also be one of the most demanding. The complex challenges presented by the wide variety of mixing tasks and scaleup needs encountered…
Move lots of potentially corrosive gas with this blower Rotron CP regenerative blowers (photo) offer extremely high resistance to corrosion and chemicals encountered in chemical processing applications, such as vent-header offgassing, spot source, biogas or landfill gas,…
Blasch Precision Ceramics (Albany, N.Y.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-548) has commercialized one-piece hex-head ferrules made of 99.6% alumina for applications in steam-methane reformers. The high-purity alumina is becoming popular as an alternative to high-grade metal alloys because it is virtually immune to chemical…
Technology for producing nanowires from titanium dioxide, and for fabricating the wires into free-standing membranes and other shapes, is being offered for sale by Intellectual Property Partners LLC (IP2; Atlanta, Ga.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-540). The membranes are chemically inert and thermally stable…
Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Racah Institute of Physics (Israel; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-539) have succeeded in programming polymer sheets to bend and wrinkle by themselves into prescribed structures, such as domes, saddles and sombrero shapes (photo). Their work, described in…
Glycerin has over 1,500 known end uses, including applications in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food products, with the U.S. market alone demanding around 600-million lb/yr. But over the next two years, biodiesel plants are expected to produce an additional…
At the end of June, Wuxi NutriRice Co. Ltd. — a joint venture of DSM (Sittard, Netherlands; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6898-550) and Bühler AG (Uzwil, Switzerland; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6898-551) — opened the world’s first facility for producing nutritionally enriched rice. Production at the site will…