A groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, dubbed CAMEO (Closed-Loop Autonomous System for Materials Exploration), rapidly identified a potentially useful new material — a germanium-antimony-tellurium alloy (Ge4Sb6Te7) that is optimized for phase-change applications in data storage and photonic-switching devices. Tasked with…
Typically, the production of fuel-grade chemicals, such as butanol, from biomass fermentation processes involves low-yield batch processes and high energy costs. Now, researchers from Imperial College London (ICL; www.imperial.ac.uk), in partnership with bp plc (London; www.bp.com), have demonstrated a new…
MDI Production Late last year, Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.covestro.com) started up a pilot plant for the production of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) based on the innovative AdiP (adiabatic-isothermal phosgenation) technology at its Brunsbüttel site. The new technology promises to…
Titanium dioxide is well known as a photocatalyst, and is especially promising for degrading organic-based contaminant molecules in wastewater. Researchers from China and Australia have reported, in a recent issue of the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, that controlling…
A new technique for making less-expensive, more-efficient biological enzyme hybrids could have widespread applications, including in water recycling, drug manufacturing and molecular biology. The technique, developed by a team from Australia and the U.S., involves using a vortex fluidic device…
A Korean team has proposed an approach for passive radiative cooling. The team, which includes professors Junsuk Rho and Jin Kon Kim of Pohang Universiy of Science and Technology (Pohang, South Korea; www.postech.ac.kr) and professor Heon Lee of Korea University…
Metso Outotec Corp. (Helsinki, Finland) has signed a contract to deliver a complete package of key process equipment for a greenfield zinc plant in Verkhny Ufaley in the Chelyabinsk region in Russia. The contract value of approximately EUR 100 million…
One of the leading retailers in the U.K., ASDA, has contracted Air Liquide S.A. (Paris, France) to install and operate six biomethane (BioNGV) distribution stations to refuel trucks on its sites. Alongside other investments to increase Air Liquide’s production and…
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; Tokyo) announced plans to establish a new pilot facility for carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP). The facility will be located in Fukui Prefecture and is scheduled to start operation by the end of 2021. MCC has…
Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Tokyo, Japan) has begun exploring a possible combination of a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) technology that converts propane gas into propylene, with another technology that efficiently synthesizes methanol, using hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2), by-products from PDH. This…