Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Houston) and BHE Renewables, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, announced they formed a joint venture for the demonstration and deployment of TerraLithium’s Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and associated technologies to extract and commercially produce…
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) has opened an mRNA competence center at its biotech site in Halle (Saale), Germany. The new facility enables the large-scale production of active ingredients based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), such as anti-Covid mRNA vaccines.…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) has sold its bioenergy enzymes business based in San Diego to Lallemand's subsidiaries, Danstar Ferment AG and Lallemand Specialties Inc. This includes the Spartec product portfolio and related technologies in development. Lallemand will integrate the business…
Asahi Kasei Corp. U.S. medical subsidiary Bionova Scientific, a full-service biologics CDMO, has decided to launch a new business line providing services leveraging plasmid DNA, and establish a dedicated facility for this purpose in Texas, the U.S. With the expansion…
Nucleic acid-based medications, such as mRNA vaccines, are opening up new therapeutic approaches. These active ingredients must be enclosed inside nanoparticles to ensure that they get to where they are needed inside the body’s cells. The Fraunhofer Institute for Production…
At the 2024 Spring Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE; www.aiche.org), a team from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL; www.netl.doe.gov) presented on a recently patented technology for the removal of critical and heavy metals from wastewater…
Brewers’ spent grain (BSG) is the most significant byproduct of the beer-brewing industry, making up 85% of the total waste. Globally, about 36.4 million ton/yr of spent grain are produced. This spent grain is typically discarded after its primary use…
Plant Watch Asahi Kasei starts operation of multi-module hydrogen pilot plant in Japan May 14, 2024 — Asahi Kasei Corp. (Tokyo; www.asahi-kasei.com) opened a new hydrogen pilot plant in Kawasaki, Japan. In the pilot plant, four 0.8-MW electrolyzer modules are…
New packings and trays encourage effectiveness and energy efficiency in traditional and emerging applications Equipment for distillation, absorption, stripping, extraction and phase separation plays a major role in the chemical process industries (CPI). However, separation processes are notoriously energy intensive,…
Plastic products have evolved to play a prominent role in our daily lives. They are generally durable and lightweight, making them ideal for a broad spectrum of applications, such as: improving efficiency of automobiles; extending the shelf-life of foods; providing…