This month, SusPhos B.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.susphos.com) is increasing the capacity ten-fold of its 25-kg/d pilot plant in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. The pilot plant, which began operating in January, is being used to develop a process that recovers phosphorus…
Ultrathin (less than 100 nm) hydrophobic coatings on alloys and other engineering materials could enhance heat and mass transfer in a range of processing applications, but achieving lasting durability for such thin coatings in real-world settings has been a major…
UOP, LLC, a Honeywell company (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) and Wood plc (Aberdeen, Scotland; www.woodplc.com) are now licensing a combined technology suite that brings together UOP’s Ecofining renewable-fuels process with Wood’s Terrace Wall hydrogen-reforming furnace, with the aim of substantially…
Plant Watch ExxonMobil to build large-scale advanced recycling facility in Baytown October 11, 2021 — ExxonMobil Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com) plans to build its first large-scale, advanced recycling facility for plastic waste in Baytown, Tex. Expected to start operations by…
Advanced equipment, new chemistries and digital technologies help manage water use to provide efficiency, sustainability and savings Water, the “common currency” across all chemical process industries (CPI) sectors, is an integral part of every process — from upstream, where it…
Runaway polymerizations of acrylic monomers can lead to catastrophic fires and explosions in production plants and storage terminals, as well as during transportation. Special chemical products called shortstop inhibitors are used to minimize the likelihood of runaway polymerization reactions. A…
Until now, manufacturing polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) that are small, light and capable of mechanical movement has been challenging using conventional methods. PEMFCs are composed of end plates, bipolar plates, gaskets, membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) and other assembly parts, of…
Conventional processes for manufacturing battery electrodes use toxic solvents and require a lot of space and energy. In contrast, DRYtraec — a new dry-coating process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology (IWS; Dresden, Germany; www.iws.fraunhofer.de) —…
'New food' GEA AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.gea.com) has received a contract from Novozymes A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) for a turnkey fitting of a major new plant to produce plant-based proteins for the plant-based food industry. The high double-digit million-euro order…
Plant Watch BP and Brightmark evaluating plastic-waste renewal plants in Europe September 15, 2021 — BP plc (London; www.bp.com) and Brightmark LLC (San Francisco, Calif.; www.brightmark.com) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly evaluate development of plastic-waste renewal plants…