Sapporo Holdings Ltd. (SHL; Tokyo, Japan; www.sapporoholdings.jp) and Innotech Green Energy Company Ltd. (IGE) in Thailand are collaborating on a project to achieve the world’s first practical fermentation process to make ethanol from cassava pulp. The two companies have completed…
Denox catalysts Last month, Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) announced its participation in ProNOx, a new four-year, $4-million research program to improve selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts. Together with two research teams from the Dept. of Chemistry and the Interdisciplinary…
Plant Watch AkzoNobel announces startup of bio-steam facility at Delfzijl plant February 13, 2017 — AkzoNobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) and utility company Eneco announced the startup of a bio-steam facility at AkzoNobel’s Delfzijl site in the Netherlands. Eneco…
The NiWest Nickel Laterite Project located at Murrin Murrin in the North Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, has the potential to become a significant long-term, low-cost nickel producer through the development of heap leaching. The project is 100% owned by…
Achieving silicon of acceptable purity for solar-energy applications typically requires several purification steps. Now, a new process has been demonstrated that can produce high-purity Si from low-quality quartz in a single step. The PureVap technology from PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (Montreal,…
As new regulations take effect, familiar refrigerants are being phased out and a variety of next-generation materials and processes are being introduced Agreed upon in October 2016 after negotiations from over 170 nations, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol…
Toray Industries, Inc. (www.toray.us) and Mitsui Sugar Co. (both Tokyo, Japan; www.mitsui-sugar.co.jp) have started a six-year project to demonstrate the production of useful materials from bagasse, with support from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Org. (NEDO; Kawasaki City,…
A coating technology that creates a permanently slippery surface that allows even sticky, viscous fluids to flow easily without leaving residue has been newly applied industrially. Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, Mass.; www.mit.edu) and licensed to…
Porous crystals called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have an extremely large surface area, as well as a large number of pores situated in an extremely small space that offer room for “guest” molecules. Such characteristics make MOFs potentially useful for gas…
Researchers from Nanjing University (Nanjing, China; www.nju.edu.cn) have reported a solar desalination device that is claimed to be much more efficient than existing devices. While typical solar-powered desalinators are not very efficient — only about 30 to 45% of the…