Latest News: Technologies
Heap leaching targets nickel from laterite
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…
Single-step production of high-purity silicon demonstrated
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,…
Chemicals from bagasse
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,…
This project aims for high-efficiency enzyme production
The European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program has awarded a grant to a consortium working to raise yields and lower costs of large-scale industrial enzymes. The grant will fund a three-year project to increase yields of an enzyme…
A new filter mesh with reduced erosion — by design
Porometric mesh is a new weave mesh designed by GKD-USA, Inc. (Cambridge, Md.; www.gkdusa.com) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations (photo), in a study aimed at reducing erosion and abrasion caused by sand in oil-and-gas pipelines. Porometric mesh has a…
Spinning miles of synthetic spider silk
An international team of scientists, led by senior researcher Anna Rising and professor Jan Johansson at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Karolinska Institute (both Stockholm, Sweden; www.slu.se and www.ki.se), has developed a process that makes it possible…
New technique simplifies doping for organic semiconductors
A new solution-based method for introducing doping into organic semiconductor films could simplify the manufacture of efficient single-layer photovoltaic cells and move them closer to a commercial reality. Beyond solar cells, the doping technique could be more broadly used in…
Batch or continuous? This methodology can help making the decision
So far, there is no high-level evaluation that gives a simple guideline on the benefits and feasibility of converting a batch to a continuous process. Now a group from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR; Singapore; www.ices.a-star.edu.sg) has…
Improving the efficiency of solar desalination
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…
Extending biomass catalyst life by removing minerals
Anellotech Inc.’s (Pearl River, N.Y.; www.anellotech.com) biomass-to-aromatics (Bio-TCat) process pyrolyzes woody biomass and converts the pyrolysis gases to aromatic hydrocarbons using zeolite catalysts in one reactor (see Chem. Eng., March 2016, p. 7; www.chemengonline.com/anellotech-receives-investment-for-bio-based-btx-development-plant). Pyrolysis is the rapid decomposition of…