Breaking down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into its constituent monomers under mild conditions is a key goal of plastics recycling. Knowledge of how many naturally occurring enzymes are capable of breaking down PET, and which would be most effective in industrial…
Despite the abundance of nitrogen and hydrogen, industrial ammonia synthesis remains an energy-intensive process. Electrochemical methods have been suggested as potentially lower-energy alternatives to traditional ammonia synthesis, but these newer technologies often struggle with achieving key performance metrics. By integrating…
Capital intensity is among the current constraints on industrial-scale fermentation, because the hardware for steam sterilization of bioreactors is complex and expensive. After recently emerging from stealth status, the startup company Biosphere (Oakland, Calif.; www.biosphere.io) has launched a new reactor…
Many separation processes depend on chemical or thermal principles, such as solvent extraction or distillation, but in some cases, mechanical methods can provide effective separations with lower cost and energy requirements. Eirex (Vaughan, Ont., Canada; www.eirex.ca) has developed a proprietary…
An ExxonMobil Corp. (Spring, Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com) adhesive-resin finishing facility in Baton Rouge, La. has become the first commercial process-manufacturing facility to be controlled by an open, standards-based process automation system. This is a departure from the closed, proprietary systems currently…
Plant Watch LG Chem set to commence production of bio-based acrylic acid February 13, 2025 — LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea; www.lgchem.com) will commence the production of bio-based acrylic acid in the second quarter of 2025, with plans to…
Advanced technologies help pharmaceutical and semiconductor producers achieve excellence Chemical processors are under increased pressure to achieve operational excellence, which involves a balance of increasing yield, improving quality and reducing waste, while also cutting operational costs. Processors in high-purity industries…
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (Waltham, Mass.) announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement with Solventum to acquire Solventum’s Purification & Filtration business for approximately $4.1 billion in cash. Solventum’s Purification & Filtration business is a leading provider…
Evertis Packaging Solutions (Portalegre, Portugal), the world’s largest PET multilayer film supplier for the food industry, unveiled plans to build a new leading edge production plant in Columbia, SC. With a total investment of $100 million, the new facility is…
Ruland Engineering & Consulting GmbH (Neustadt, Germany) has been planning and building process systems for the production of liquid products since 2000. What began with just seven employees has developed into an international company with 320 employees and 5 locations.…