Dandelion rubber
Last month saw the start of a five-year joint research project to extract rubber from…
Commentary
A repeat near miss
It is with extreme reticence that I author this page, even though I received permission…
In The News
Chementator
Transporting more H2 gas
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has developed a new storage technology that will enable…
Plasma-modified CNTs show promise for water purification
An international team of researchers claims to have developed carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes with an…
KIT makes ‘gasoline’ for the first time
Last month, the synthesis stage of the bioliq (biomass to liquid Karlsruhe) pilot plant produced…
Capture realtime images of gas leaks with this technology
New gas-cloud imaging technology from Rebellion Photonics (Houston; www.rebellionphotonics.com) monitors facilities for gas leaks and…
A new material for large-scale energy storage devices
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU; Canberra; www.anu.edu.au), and the University of New South…
November Chementator Briefs
Reforming catalyst Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) has introduced a new alkali-promoted steam-reforming…
Heat Transfer for Huge-Scale Fermentation
Industrial microbiology continues to hold the promise of producing an increasingly large array of commercially…
First commercial-scale high-solids anaerobic digester in North America
Harvest Power (Waltham, Mass.; www.harvestpower.com) recently began operation of the first commercial-scale, high-solids anaerobic digester…
Bacteria engineered to make gasoline
Short-chain hydrocarbons have been produced for the first time by microbial fermentation by a research…
A new catalyst for low-cost production of biodiesel fuel
Daiki Axis Co. (Matsuyama City, Japan; www.daiki-axis.com) has developed a new solid catalyst for biodiesel…
A new proppant
Last month, Carbo Ceramics Inc. (Houston; www.carboceramics.com) introduced KryptoSphere, an ultra-conductive, high-strength proppant technology designed…
Business News
BASF produces first commercial volumes of bio-based butanediol
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has produced its first commercial volumes of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from…
Wacker to expand dispersible-polymer-powder capacity in China
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) plans to expand its production capacity for dispersible polymer…
Caloric to build incinerator with HCl recovery in Poland
Caloric Anlagenbau GmbH (Gräfelfing, Germany; www.caloric.com) has been awarded a contract for the engineering and…
GE and Carbon Holdings sign agreement for Egypt’s largest petrochemical plant
GE (www.ge.com) and Carbon Holdings today signed a US$500 million agreement to provide technology and…
Foster Wheeler wins EPC contract for new coker in Argentina
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com) says that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and…
ArcelorMittal selects Air Products technology for onsite gas production
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has signed a contract with ArcelorMittal to supply three…
Stamicarbon to provide technology to SOCAR
Stamicarbon B.V. (Sittard, The Netherlands; www.stamicarbon.com) , the Licensing and IP Center of Maire Tecnimont…
ThyssenKrupp to strengthen electrolysis business through planned JV
ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Hamburgh, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp.com) has reached an agreement with De Nora (Milan,…
Solvay to build large-scale alkoxylation facility in Texas
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) says it will build and operate a large-scale alkoxylation unit…
42nd Kirkpatrick Award announced
Last month at the ChemInnovations Conference and Exhibition (Galveston, Tex.; September 25–26), Chemical Engineering (…
Solvay to build large bicarbonate plant in Thailand, and more business news
Plant Watch Novozymes and Beta Renewables open advanced biofuels facility in Italy October 9, 2013…
Technical & Practical
Ethanol from Woodchips
Ethanol is widely produced by fermentation of sugars from agriculture feedstocks, such as corn and…
Troubleshooting and Solving a Sour-Water Stripper Problem
A recent book by Lieberman [1] stresses that to combat the environmental crisis that our…
Piping Design for Potentially Lethal Chemicals
Working in close proximity to the high pressures and temperatures commonly found in the chemical…
Selecting the Proper Mill for Your Product
Milling is a mechanistically driven process that breaks solid material into smaller pieces. Selection of…
Facts at Your Fingertips
Calculating Volumes of Bulk Solids
Calculating volumes of solids in piles as they are poured into various shaped containers can…