This column is based on “Ethylene Dichloride from Ethylene and Chlorine,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/edc-e11a. Ethylene dichloride (also known as 1,2-dichloroethane, as well as EDC and DCE) is by far the most widely…
The two main barriers to widespread use of fuel cells have been securing a reliable source of hydrogen that avoids CO2 emissions, and cost — they have traditionally depended on expensive platinum and palladium catalyst materials. GenCell Energy Ltd. (Petach…
Last month, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Dortmund, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) launched industrial-scale water electrolysis systems that make large-scale hydrogen production from renewable electricity economically attractive. The advanced water electrolyzer (diagram) features a well-proven cell design paired with an especially large (2.7…
Last month, MOL Group (Budapest, Hungary: www.mol.hu) entered into a strategic partnership with Inovacat (Amersfoort, the Netherlands; www.inovacat.com) to further upscale and commercialize Inovacat’s Gasolfin gasoline-to-olefins technology, which converts low-valued gasoline and naphthas into high-value propylene, butylene and BTX (benzene,…
The following is a list of recently published books that may be relevant to different parts of the chemical process industries (CPI). Microplastic Contamination in Aquatic Environments: An Emerging Matter of Environmental Urgency. Edited by Eddy Y. Zeng, Elsevier…
Drying biosludge from wastewater-treatment plants is complicated by the “sticky phase,” making the practice more of an art than a science. Discussed here are efforts to define the beginning and endpoints of this phase analytically The drying of biosludge from…
This column is based on “Acrylonitrile Production from Propylene,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/acrylonitrile-e11a. The highly reactive compound acrylonitrile (AN) contains a carbon-carbon double bond conjugated with a nitrile group. The chemical became important…
One of the major obstacles to making hydrogen economically by splitting water is the high cost of noble-metal electrodes. Less expensive, non-noble metals only function as electrocatalysts under alkaline conditions, where the reaction requires more electricity. Now, professor Ryoichi Ito…
The world’s first pilot plant for manufacturing bio-based furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) began operating last month in Decatur, Ill. A collaboration between DuPont Industrial Biosciences (Wilmington, Del.; www.biosciences.dupont.com) and Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM; Chicago, Ill.; www.adm.com), the 60-ton/yr…
Digitalization, sustainability, security and safety are at the forefront of innovations in the logistics and supply-chain sectors Ensuring that chemical products reach the correct location at the correct time requires intricate networks of complex logistics and scheduling tasks where several…