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In 1851, the year that the first America’s Cup sailboat race was contested, the top speed for a wind-powered vessel was 10 knots. Over the next 100 years, top sailboat speeds barely budged, but by the mid-1970s, top sailing speed…

Modular Construction: Choosing the Optimal Module Type

Plant process modules are not a one-size-fits-all solution. These considerations can help determine the best size for your project With the growing recognition of the advantages of modular construction over traditional field construction [1, 2], it’s no surprise that an…

Chementator Briefs

Lime Injection Engineers at the Institute for Technologies of Metals (ITM) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Duisburg, Germany; www.uni-due.de), together with Fritz Winter Eisengießerei GmbH & Co. KG (FW; Stadtallendorf; Germany) and the FEhS – Building Materials Institute e.V. (Duisburg)…

Improved Mixing Performance Drives Innovation in Battery Development

Effective slurry mixing for electrode material has a significant effect on the performance of a lithium-ion battery fabricated downstream. A collaboration improved the slurry-mixing ability and improved the quality of the electrode materials The global shift towards cleaner and more…

A closed-loop hydrometallurgical process for low-carbon iron processing

Electrification will be a key factor in decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors, but challenges arise in applications that require very high temperatures, such as steel production. The intense heat requirements for converting iron ore into metal contribute significantly to the CO2 emissions…

Executive Interview: Clariant Catalysts Business Unit

In this exclusive interview, Jens Cuntze, member of Clariant’s Executive Steering Committee, offers his perspective on the goals, challenges and accomplishments of the Business Unit Catalysts, as well as the challenges faced by the chemical process industries Jens Cuntze is…

A fungus converts cellulose directly into a platform chemical

Conventional bioprocesses use three separate steps to convert cellulose into products, such as bioplastics and biofuels. The consolidated bioprocess (CBP) combines all steps — cellulase production, cellulose hydrolysis and product fermentation — in a single reactor. Using the natural abilities…

CO2-to-methanol conversion improved with catalyst-support ion swap

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; www.ornl.gov) and a team of interdisciplinary scientists tripled the yield of methanol in the catalytic hydrogenation reaction of carbon dioxide by introducing hydrides into the catalyst support material. The researchers…

CO2 captured in stationary energy storage battery

An Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) team created and tested two different formulations for stationary batteries that could utilize CO2 from industrial sources while storing energy from wind turbines and solar panels. Consisting of two electrodes in a saltwater solution,…

A new reactor system for producing polymers

Traditionally, many polymerization reactions are carried out batchwise in reactor vessels, with the reaction taking place in solution, emulsion or in a melt. This procedure reaches its limits if, for example, the reaction is very exothermic or the viscosity increases…