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Processing & Handling

Landfill Gas Processing: Plant-Design Considerations

There are several technologies used in the disposal of landfill gas (LFG). Here are some key elements that can guide engineers in designing an optimized LFG processing plant People generate trash. Trash is stored in landfills. Landfills contain bacteria, which…

Air Liquide partners with Samsung Engineering for a Methanol plant in Malaysia

Following a successful Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study in 2019, Air Liquide Engineering & Construction (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) will continue its partnership with Samsung Engineering to build a methanol production plant for Sarawak Petchem, a state-owned oil and…

Axens to supply a modular Prime-G+ unit to Raizen Buenos Aires Refinery

Raízen Argentina, Shell licensee, has selected Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France) for the modular supply of a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline hydrodesulfurization unit Prime-G+ in its Buenos Aires refinery. Raízen Argentina is developing a modernization and expansion program for its existing…

Improve aircraft fuel efficiency with ‘sharkskin’

Lufthansa Technik AG (Hamburg; www.lufthansa-technik.com) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) have developed a surface film, tradenamed AeroSHARK, that mimics the fine structure of a shark’s skin for reducing friction. The technology is to be rolled out on Lufthansa Cargo…

Converting woody biomass to intermediates allows carbon-negative products

Construction has begun on a market demonstration facility for manufacturing chloromethyl furfural (CMF) and hydrothermal carbon (HTC) from a variety of waste biomass feedstocks. With subsequent chemical transformation, these flexible intermediates can be converted into final products, such as polyethylene…

Modular waste-to-energy system is cost-competitive at smaller scales

A newly launched modular waste-to-energy system is capable of delivering off-grid heat and power with competitive economics to a variety of locations, including military bases, remote sites and commercial installations, according to creator Enexor BioEnergy LLC (Franklin, Tenn.; www.enexor.com). Under…

Reducing the cost of redox flow batteries

Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries for storing large quantities of renewable energy (see Chem. Eng., September 2016, pp. 14–20), but they have always been too expensive for the mass market. Now, researchers at the…

Technology Profile: Production of Sodium Hydroxide from Brine

Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a white, translucent crystalline solid that is widely used in the chemical process industries (CPI). NaOH is often referred to as caustic soda, due to its corrosive action on many substances: it decomposes proteins at room…

Recently Published Books for the CPI: May 2021

The following recently published books may have relevance to various sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI). Driving Continuous Process Safety Improvement from Investigated Incidents. By the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), Wiley Publishing, 2021, 288 pages, $140.00. Industry…

New catalyst for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propylene

Conventional propane dehydrogenation (PDH) is an endothermic, equilibrium-limited reaction that requires high temperatures to achieve commercially viable per-pass yields of propylene. Oxidative propane dehydrogenation has the potential to form propylene at much lower temperatures and more selectively by controlling the…