Steam Reforming Honeywell International Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.; www.honeywell.com) and ZoneFlow Reactor Technologies, LLC (ZFRT; Windsor, Conn.; www.zoneflowtech.com) have successfully conducted pilot-plant testing of the ZoneFlow Reactor in ZFRT’s large-scale pilot plant at Université Catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. The…
Most plant-based bioprocesses involve growing plants in outdoor fields or greenhouses, but this is hindered by local climates and available space, and typical product yields are very low per plant, especially for natural active molecules used in pharmaceutical and healthcare…
Processing iron ore is the most carbon-intensive step in the steelmaking process, often using coal as an energy source. A new technology, called Molten Oxide Electrolysis (MOE) aims to decarbonize the iron-ore process through electrification. “In the MOE cell, an…
Traditional vapor-compression refrigeration relies on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as refrigerant fluids — a class of compounds with global-warming potentials (GWP) thousands of times higher than that of CO2. A new approach from scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL; Berkeley, Calif.;…
Discovering new catalysts and materials for specific applications can be a tedious and time-consuming process involving labor-intensive tests and expensive samples. Technology developed by Mattiq (Skokie, Ill.; www.mattiq.com) enables the “printing” of tens of thousands of tiny material samples onto…
With global temperatures likely to rise beyond the 1.5°C target set by climate experts, negative emissions technologies — most notably direct air capture (DAC) — become increasingly important for addressing CO2 already in the atmosphere. A new DAC approach is…
Fluidized beds are used in a variety of industries for combustion, drying, catalytic cracking and other processes. However, the process that occurs inside a fluidized bed is extremely complex and — due to a lack of effective measurement techniques —…
There are several established technologies to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water, including membranes and adsorbents. However, such purification media can pose disposal challenges due to the potential for further PFAS contamination stemming from the spent media. Now,…
With the Texoversum (photo), Reutlingen University (Germany; www.reutlingen-university.de) has put into operation a training and innovation center for the textile industry that is unique in Europe. The almost 2,000-m2 textile-like façade of the new building combines the innovative power of…
One of the major byproducts of the nuclear fission process used for power generation is 137Cs, a radioactive isotope of Cs that has a half-life of 30 years and is often removed from nuclear-power-plant wastewater via selective adsorption using ion…