The synthetic biology company Kalion Inc. (Milton, Mass.; www.kalioninc.com) recently completed its first commercial-scale production run of high-purity (98–99%) glucaric acid via fermentation of glucose at a custom-manufacturing facility owned by Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com). The high purities…
A group of researchers from the University of Arizona (Tucson; www.arizona.edu), led by chemistry and biochemistry professor Jeff Pyun, are aiming to make use of sulfur waste streams from petroleum refineries. To meet environmental regulations, sulfur must be removed from…
Ethylene is used almost exclusively as a building block — it is the largest-volume petrochemical produced worldwide (Figure 1). Production of ethylene grew rapidly in the middle of the 20th century, when oil and chemical companies began separating it from…
To honor the efforts of those chemical engineers and their companies that have successfully commercialized a new process for the first time, Chemical Engineering magazine has been be-stowing its Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award since 1933. The aim of the…
Often, operational problems in steam systems are misattributed because the system’s steam quality is not closely monitored. A clear understanding of steam quality can help to better address these issues Steam quality describes the proportion of saturated steam (vapor) in…
Cummins Inc. (Indianapolis, Ind.) and China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec Group) announced the formation of a 50:50 joint venture (JV) — Cummins Enze (Guangdong) Hydrogen Technology Co., Ltd (Cummins Enze). The JV will accelerate the affordability and availability of green hydrogen…
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.) has awarded thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers GmbH (Dortmund, Germany) a contract to supply a more than 2-GW electrolysis plant for one of the world’s largest green hydrogen projects at NEOM in Saudi Arabia. Under this…
Chevron Lummus Global LLC (CLG; Richmond, Calif.) and Saudi Aramco (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; www.aramco.com) have signed a Joint Collaboration and License Agreement to co-develop and license Saudi Aramco's Heavy Oil Processing Initiative (HOPI+) technology. HOPI+ aims to achieve relatively higher…
Commissioning has begun on a pilot plant designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a structured catalyst module for steam-methane reforming (SMR) that solves the main heat-transfer inefficiencies associated with the conventional process. The structured catalyst technology improves the efficiency of…