Efforts to find more environmentally friendly anti-scalant approaches have yielded a new form of functionalized nanocellulose that can prevent the nucleation and growth of calcium carbonate, the most common component of industrial scale. Based on the biopolymer cellulose, the anti-scaling…
Last month, construction began on a demonstration facility that integrates high-performance entrained-flow gasification technology and Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis for making jet fuel from woody biomass. The demonstration project is being carried out by a Japanese consortium, led by Mitsubishi Hitachi…
Plastic-bottle waste is toxic and non-biodegradable, and has become a major environmental issue. It often ends up in the oceans, affecting marine life, or in landfills, contaminating groundwater and affecting land use. Now a team led by professors Nhan Phan-Thien…
A team from the University of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky.; www.uky.edu) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Blacksburg, Va.; www.vt.edu) has set up a novel pilot plant to recover rare-earth elements (REEs) from coal-based sources, aiming to produce high-grade REE concentrates from coal-based…
A research team from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia; www.unsw.edu.au) and Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Bochum, Germany; www.ruhr-universität-bochum.de) has succeeded in transferring structural characteristics of natural enzymes to metallic nanoparticles, achieving high catalytic activity. In the case of enzymes,…
Rare-earth elements (REEs), such as scandium, are in high demand, but it is often difficult to economically recover and extract them. Now, II-VI Inc. (Saxonburg, Pa.; www.ii-vi.com) has developed a patent-pending process utilizing selective ion recovery (SIR) that enables highly…
Renewable jet fuel At the end of last October, euglena Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.euglena.jp) completed the construction of Japan’s first demonstration plant for the production of renewable jet and diesel fuel in Yokohama. The $58-million pilot plant, located at the…
The SAGE UMT (photo) is a wireless, hand-held steam-trap-testing solution that enables accurate, on-the-go testing of steam-trap performance. SAGE UMT leverages radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to quickly locate and identify steam traps. Its piezoelectric acoustic and non-contact infrared (IR) temperature…
Reducing the total cost of ownership is paramount for manufacturers of dairy, food and beverage products. Using the new Aseptic Mixproof Valve (photo) instead of alternatives can deliver a total cost saving of up to 45% for manufacturers using aseptic…
The ideal gas law ( PV = nRT), relating molar volume of a gas to pressure and temperature, is predicated on two assumptions: 1) that the volume occupied by the gas molecules is negligible compared to the volume of the…