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…
Davy Process Technology Ltd. (DPT; London; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6898-531), a Johnson Matthey company, has received the first license of its new glycerin-to-propylene glycol (GTPG) process. The first project, planned for the Ashland/Cargill joint venture (CE, June, p. 10), will produce more than…
A new catalyst that promises to cut the cost of producing biodiesel fuel from vegetable oils and animal fats by 30% has been developed by Victor Lin, a chemistry professor at Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6898-537). The solid catalyst…
Alumina refining by the Bayer process involves the digestion of bauxite ore with caustic soda, which produces “green liquor,†from which alumina is recovered, and a bauxite residue, called red mud, which is stored in large disposal areas. A typical…
A research team from Austria and Sweden have demonstrated that nanowires of a nickel-rhodium alloy exhibit a suprisingly high reactivity to oxygen. Using physical vapor deposition, the researchers have produced quasi one-dimensional rows of Ni atoms on a single-crystal rhodium…
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…
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6898-552) plans to build the first commercial-scale plant for the production of granular polysilicon for the solar industry at its Berghausen, Germany, site. The 650-m.t./yr facility is expected to start up by the end of…
The need to reduce production costs and optimize energy consumption makes proper pump selection more important than ever. Understanding basic pumping principles and the fluid characteristics for a given application is the starting point for selection It has been said…
This ball valve provides a high flow Introduced last year, the 7G Series (photo) is a three-piece, 316-stainless-steel ball valve offered in two- and three-way configurations. The valve operates at pressures up to 3,000 psi, has a…