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Electrolysis of seawater — without pre-treatment

Current electrolyzers for producing hydrogen use purified water as feedstock, but in the future, this could exacerbate freshwater shortages in some areas. Seawater is highly abundant, but the ions it contains undergo electrode side reactions, and cause corrosion in proton-exchange…

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Quinones power this flow battery

A new flow-battery design is based on quinones — a plentiful material historically derived from coal tar and used in dyestuff manufacturing — rather than traditional battery electrolytes. “Our feedstocks use no critical materials like lithium, cobalt or nickel, and…

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Plant Watch: April 2023

Plant Watch Evonik to expand methionine production capacity in Singapore March 9, 2023 — Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) is expanding its capacity to produce DL-methionine on Jurong Island, Singapore, by 40,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr). Following the…

Kraton announces SBS copolymer capacity expansion in Ohio

Kraton Corp. (Houston) announced a significant expansion of its styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymers (SBS) supply capability at its Belpre, Ohio facility starting in 2024. The production capacity is expected to increase by 24,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) by 2025. "We…

Saint-Gobain to sell its glass-processing business in Switzerland

Saint-Gobain (Courbevoie, France) has signed a binding agreement for the sale of its glass processing business Glassolutions in Switzerland to the privately-owned German group AEQUITA. The business generated sales of around €25 million in 2022 and employs approximately 70 people…

SP Chemicals selects Lummus’ Catofin and Novolen Technologies

Lummus Technology (Houston) announced an integrated technology award from SP Chemicals and its subsidiary SP Olefins. SP Chemicals will license Lummus' CATOFIN® technology for a new 800,000-ton/yr propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit, and SP Olefins will license Lummus' Novolen technology for a new…

Umicore steps up solid-state battery technology development with investment in Blue Current

Umicore N.V. (Brussels, Belgium) and Blue Current, a leading manufacturer of silicon elastic composite solid-state batteries, have agreed to strengthen their collaboration on the development of solid-state battery technology, with Umicore investing a minority stake in the U.S.-based start-up. This…

CE Podcast: Plastics Recycling and PHA

On this episode of the Chemical Engineering podcast, our guests are polymer chemist Scott Trenor, a principal scientist at Milliken Chemical Company, and Anindya Mukherjee, the co-founder of GO!PHA, an organization promoting the development of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as an alternative…

Axens to supply process technologies for two gas-treatment plants in Kuwait

Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France)  is supplying the process design packages for the gas treatment of two Gas Plants located in North Kuwait, which EPC are managed respectively by SPETCO and Jereh. Axens licenses two HySWEET units for the acid gas removal,…

Evonik kicks off construction of lipids manufacturing site in Indiana

Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany) has officially begun construction of its $220 million global-scale production facility for pharmaceutical specialty lipids in Lafayette, Indiana, in the United States. The new facility is expected to secure the industry’s access to critical excipients…