BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-548) and voestalpine Stahl GmbH (Linz, Austria; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-549) have developed a steel passivation compound that is free of chromium and fluoride. Launched at last month’s Hanover Fair (Germany), BASF’s Luglavan was developed for use in conversion…
Membranes that consist of a single layer of carbon atoms (called graphene) - the thinnest possible structure - have been created by researchers at Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Stuttgart, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-532) and at the University of Manchester…
Another kind of carbon membrane (see previous item) is being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-534). In this case, the membrane consists of a parallel array of tiny tubes, each of less than 2 nm dia. and…
Researchers at the Max Plank Institute for Colloids and Interfaces (Potsdam, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-549) have taken a first step towards artificial photosynthesis by developing a metal-free catalyst that could enable CO2 to be used as a reagent in chemical synthesis. The…
Recent strong activity in the global chemical process industries (CPI) has brought good news for pump manufacturers, among other equipment vendors. "There's tremendous growth in the chemical, petrochemical and oil and gas markets, and business for us is…
Pipe flanges are used to mechanically connect pipe sections to other pipe sections, inline components, and equipment. Flanges also allow pipe to be assembled and disassembled without cutting or welding, which eliminates the need for those two operations when…
The pressures and challenges placed on the chemical process industries (CPI) have been heralded so often that even a person on the street can articulate most of them; and the list continues to grow - cost containment, lawsuits,…
Mixing of fluids and pasty materials is one of the most fundamental unit operations in chemical engineering. Traditionally an area in which practical experience is often more reliable than calculation, recent years have seen advances in mixing technology…
Researchers from the Chemistry Dept. at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6892-535) have discovered a new way to prepare monodisperse, discrete nanoparticles of silica with specific shapes, such as cubes, tetrapods and spheres. The shaped particles can be porous, and…
Exelus, Inc. (see also story on p. 11) has demonstrated a process that makes styrene monomer (SM) by the side-chain alkylation of toluene with methanol — an energy-neutral process — instead of the conventional dehydrogenation-of-ethylbenzene route, which is energy-intensive and…