Nippon Shokubai Co. (Osaka and Tokyo, Japan; www.shokubai.co.jp) has jointly developed a new process for biomass utilization in collaboration with professor Yuichi Kita at Kobe University (www.kobe-u.ac.jp). The process is highly efficient for decomposing lignocellulose into a group of water-soluble…
Produced water from natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale Deposit is extremely high in total dissolved solids (TDS; levels of 25–35% TDS are common) and barium, making the water difficult to re-use and requiring injection in underground geologic formations.…
While demand for the artificial sweetener xylitol grows, expensive raw materials and low yields have kept production prices high. Now, a new process from S2G BioChem (Vancouver, B.C., Canada; www.s2gbiochem.com) aims to produce xylitol in a more cost-effective way, utilizing…
Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) are attractive because of the low cost and wide availability of natural gas, plus the ability to connect to residential and business gas lines for fueling. Among the challenges for using natural gas as a fuel…
Data points from literature are refined into a single correlation defining dry-tray pressure drop in sieve trays The sieve tray has been in the marketplace as a distillation device for many decades. It has been used extensively on distillation tray…
Characterizing mixer impellers on the basis of power, flow, shear and efficiency Mixing has been defined as “the application of mechanical motion in order to create fluid dynamic effects that achieve a desired process result” [1]. The process result is…
South African company Swayana is collaborating with carbon recycling company LanzaTech (Skokie, Ill.; www.lanzatech.com) to introduce LanzaTech’s proprietary carbon capture technology to South Africa. LanzaTech’s first commercial facility will be online at the end of 2017 in China, producing fuel-grade…
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) announced that its three large air separation units (ASUs) in Hangjinqi, Inner Mongolia, for Inner Mongolia Yitai Chemical Co. Ltd. (Yitai Chemical) have come onstream. The world-scale facilities supply more than 9,000 tons per…
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) to support future Ma’aden projects located within and outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Under the MOU, Fluor would…
Chiyoda Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.chiyoda-corp.com), along with Mitsubhisi Corp., Mitsui & Co. and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, has announced the creation of the “Advanced Hydrogen Energy Chain for Technology Development” (AHEAD) initiative and the launch of the world’s first Global…