ExxonMobil Corp. (Irving, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7373-537) plans to spend more than $100 million on a commercial demonstration of its Controlled Freeze Zone (CFZ) technology for removing carbon dioxide from natural gas. The plant, to be located at the company’s Shute Creek…
After several years of proven operation in the food- and nutritional-products industry, a patented drying technology is now ready to be applied for any liquid or slurry product. Developed by MCD Technologies, Inc. (Tacoma, Wash.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7373-535), the Refractance Window (RW)…
Packed Columns [1] A packed column is a vertical, cylindrical pressure vessel containing one or more sections of a packing material over whose surface the liquid flows downward by gravity, as a film or as droplets, between packing elements. Vapor…
Separation by a membrane is achieved by creating a boundary between different bulk gas or liquid mixtures. As different solvents and solutes flow through a membrane at different rates, separation is achieved. Here, we will focus on three filtration techniques:…
Although nanoporous silica membranes are promising systems for the molecular separation of gases and liquids, they lack microstructural stability in the presence of water at temperatures as low as 60°C. Prolonged exposure to water causes hydrolysis, resulting in the formation…
Hitachi Zosen Corp. (Hitz; Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7369-531) is commercializing a new membrane for a hybrid-distillation system (HDS) that is especially suitable for dehydrating ethanol and isopropanol. The HDS can produce 99.7 vol.% ethanol from ethanol-water mixtures with 10 vol.% H2O…
Centrifugation is the method of choice in the chemical process industries (CPI) for separating solids from liquids. It relies on the G-forces generated by high-speed rotation to recover solids or liquids from slurries, as well as clarify liquids or classify…
A method for the purification of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in four sequential steps — oxidative pretreatment, acid treatment, silica dissolution, and froth flotation — has been proposed by a team from the Petroleum and Petrochemical College, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok,…
Ethanol production is an energy-intensive process in which about 50% of the cost is for distillation and dehydration of the ethanol. A membrane system that does the same job, but reduces the energy consumption by up to 50%, has been…
Last month at the BioProcess International Conference (Boston, Mass.; October 1–3), Novasep Process (Boothwyn, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6901-533) launched a new technology for downstream processing of biologicals. BioSC (Biopharmaceutical Sequential Chromatography) uses a process known as sequential multi-column continuous chromatography (SMCC), which…