Researchers at CSIRO Exploration and Mining (Kensington, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-548) have discovered that a bacterium, called Ralstonia metallidurans, may be responsible for the formation of secondary gold grains in nature. Cultures of the R. metallidurans - identified, using molecular biology techniques,…
Two chemicals producers have recently reaped the benefits of high-throughput-screening technologies, through research collaborations with Symyx Technologies, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-550). In April, Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.) deployed a new catalyst at one of its vinyl acetate plants. The…
Intelligent selection and specification help to assure getting representative, uncontaminated samples from multiple process lines to a shared analyzer Process engineers rely heavily on analytical instrumentation to ensure product quality. Properly designed systems help prevent contaminated fluids and gases from…
In the pharmaceutical, biotech and food processing industries, ingredients are transported, mixed, heated and cooled assuming the assurance of product purity required by lawmakers and taken for granted by consumers. Integral to the design of fluid-handling systems that…
Although polymer-based piping systems have been used in the chemical process industries (CPI) for decades, the global market share is only around 10%, says Stephan Schuessler, head of technology and R&D at Georg Fischer DEKA GmbH (GF DEKA; Dautphetal, Germany;…
Professor emeritus Kiyoshi Ohtsuka and his colleagues at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6514-538) have discovered a new process that produces pure Hâ‚‚ from cellulose. The process not only has nearly a 100% yield, but produces no CO…
A traditional treatment for damaged knee cartilage is called autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI), whereby healthy cartilage-forming cells are taken from an undamaged site of the patient and injected to the damaged site. This procedure takes many weeks, during which time,…
Trends in the worldwide chemical process industries, especially a steep rise in the compression and liquefaction of gases to lower the costs of their storage and transportation, have heightened the engineer's need to have a working familiarity with…
The 135,514 sq.m. of exhibitor booths, plus the 925 tracks, lectures and other conference presentations, that made up the Achema Exhibition-congress presented by Dechema e.V. in Frankfurt this May offered its 180,000 attendees technological wares and information across a remarkably…
Conventional magnetically coupled centrifugal pumps can only survive dry running — if at all — by using costly materials and complicated constructions, according to Christian Wallrodt, sales manager at Wernert-Pumpen GmbH (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6514-531). Such pumps’ bearings…