In The News
A new class of proton-conducting materials operates at lower temperatures
A new material could open the door to more effective protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs). PCFCs are a promising energy source that employ specialized ceramic materials to conduct protons (instead of electrons) at much lower temperatures than typical solid-oxide fuel…
This photocatalytic reactor system makes chemicals without fossil fuels
Last May, Emerson (St. Louis, Mo.; www.emerson.com) was selected by Syzygy Plasmonics (Houston; www.plasmonics.tech) to automate its all-electric photocatalytic reactor technology. Syzygy has developed, scaled and integrated its core technologies, incubated at, and licensed from, Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu), into…
Photochemistry boosts the yield of chiral compounds
Isolation and purification of pure, active enantiomers is important in the development of active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug products. However, recovering the desired optical isomer from a racemic mixture means half of the chemical produced — the undesired isomer —…
Commercial debut for a batch reverse-osmosis system
Earlier this year, Salinity Solutions Ltd. (Coventry, U.K.; www.salinitysolutions.co.uk) signed an agreement with Te-Tech Process Solutions (Totton, Southampton, U.K.; www.te-tech.co.uk) to manufacture commercial water-purification systems based on batch reverse-osmosis (RO). This technology, originally characterized and developed at the University of…
Innovations in Mixing Maximize Efficiency
Developments in mixing technologies permit efficient use of energy and resources and manage challenging applications Mixing equipment hadn’t changed much in the past 50 years until recently when chemical processors began demanding more efficiency from their mixing operations due to…
A hydrogen-fired furnace for ceramics
This month, a demonstration experiment will begin on a new firing furnace for ceramics that is being developed by NGK Insulators, Ltd. (NGK; www.ngk.co.jp). The furnace is fired with hydrogen instead of fossil fuels, thereby reducing CO2 emissions. H2-fired combustion…
Spinning reactor recovers metals from spent Li-ion batteries
Recycling lithium batteries (LIBs) requires extensive use of hydrometallurgy, which requires multiple steps of extraction-stripping processes, each requiring separate reactors and different parameters. Although there have been attempts to devise a single-step, one-pot solution by partitioning the reactor using membranes,…
Pilot trials for a carbon-capture process that combines VPSA and MOFs
This summer, pilot trials will begin at a Buzzi Unicem S.p.A. (Casale Monferrato, Italy; www.buzziunicem.com) cement plant in Monselice, Italy, which will perform field tests of a new carbon-capture process developed by Nuada, the new tradename of MOF Technologies Ltd.…
Ligand-based separation method for rare earth elements
Rare-earth elements (REEs) are difficult to separate because of their similar properties, so conventional methods are often costly and generate significant amounts of waste. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; www.ornl.gov) have developed a new technique…
World’s largest double, re-slurry crystallization unit starts up in China
Last month, the world’s largest double re-slurry para-xylene crystallization unit was started as part of Shenghong Refining and Chemicals Co. Ltd.’s integrated refining/chemicals project in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China. Double re-slurry crystallization takes advantage of freezing-point differences among the three…