In The News
A new demonstration plant expands the horizons of post-consumer recycling
Operations are planned to start up soon at a first-of-its-kind recycling demonstration plant in Monthey, Switzerland. Employing a proprietary reaction technology developed by DePoly S.A. (Sion, Switzerland; www.depoly.co), the plant is set to treat up to 500 tons/yr of polyethylene…
New Technologies Promote Improved Combustion
Innovative burner and combustion systems optimize combustion, improving safety, effectiveness and efficiency while lowering emissions In burner and combustion operations, chemical processors must balance emissions and safety requirements with achieving optimal system performance in a cost-effective way. Further, many chemical…
Business News: July 2025
Plant Watch Tosoh to construct new chloroprene rubber plant in Japan June 13, 2025 — Tosoh Corp. (Tokyo; www.tosoh.com) plans to increase its production capacity for chloroprene rubber (CR) by adding a second CR production facility at its Nanyo Complex…
Molten-salt electrolysis process quickly scales up U.S. cobalt-refining capacity
A proprietary molten-salt electrolysis (MSE) process originally designed for battery manufacturing has now been re-optimized for North America’s first operational cobalt-refining plant. The DirectPlateTM MSE technology developed by Xerion Advanced Battery Corp. (Kettering, Ohio; www.xerionbattery.com; see Direct molten-salt electroplating cuts…
This MOF selectively adsorbs CO2 from biogas and can be regenerated under mild conditions
Biogas — produced from anaerobic digestion of organic matter — contains a mixture of gases, with methane and carbon dioxide as the predominant components. To use biogas as a fuel source, purification of the gas is typically needed to remove…
Direct synthesis of C2 hydrocarbons using photoelectrochemistry
Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, Calif. www.lbl.gov), along with a host of collaborators, have made progress on an artificial photosynthesis system that converts CO2 into ethane and ethylene using nanostructured copper and perovskite. In a recent publication…
Conversion of CO2 gas to graphene successfully demonstrated
The ability to economically produce large scales of graphene will help to enable many high-performance applications, from smart packaging materials and medical devices to safer gas storage. A new process demonstrated at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI; San Antonio, Tex.; www.swri.org)…
Generative and Agentic AI: Intelligent Manufacturing Evolves
As many chemical producers are developing and implementing comprehensive AI strategies, newer AI paradigms, such as generative and agentic platforms are set to transform the benefits AI can provide Due to the continuous generation of data and the complexity and…
Advanced Mixing Technologies Enhance Process Efficiency
New mixing solutions lead to higher yields, while minimizing energy consumption and material waste Usually engineered for a specific application in the chemical process industries (CPI), mixing solutions have the potential to enhance the efficiency of any process, leading to…
Creating microgels for drug delivery by ion exchange
One method used to deliver drugs in a controlled manner is to encapsulate them in an injectable gel. Microgels — hydrogel particles made of synthetic or natural polymers with a high water content that measure about 1 to 100 micrometers…