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Making solar steam and salts from brine
A low-cost “green” technology for water desalination and zero liquid discharge of industrial wastewater that has been drawing increasing attention is solar steam generation using nanostructured photothermal materials. However, the crystallization of salts on the surface of photothermal materials during…
Chementator Briefs
Carbyne transfer Marcos G. Suero and his research group at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ; Tarragona, Spain; www.iciq.es) have reported a new reaction that inserts a monovalent carbon unit between both sp2-hybridized carbons of alkenes. For the…
Underground oxidation of hydrocarbons and gas separation yields hydrogen
A process for in-situ oxidation of hydrocarbons in low-quality oilfields, and subsequent gas separation, offers a path to generating hydrogen for fuel and chemicals that avoids any greenhouse gas emissions. Known as Hygienic Earth Energy (HEE), the process has been…
Reduction of carbon dioxide to methane
Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to hydrocarbons and oxygenates on copper involves reduction to a carbon monoxide adsorbate followed by transformation to hydrocarbons and oxygenates. To ensure the sustainability of the process, the electrochemical CO2 reduction is typically conducted in…
Multi-state switchable stationary phase for chiral separation
High-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a chiral stationary phase (CSP) is the most effective method for separating enantiomers of chiral molecules. However, the limited number of CSPs available puts a constraint on applying this technology universally. Now, researchers from the…
Ionic liquids enable lower-cost desalination with forward osmosis
Membrane-based forward osmosis (FO) desalination could be a lower-cost alternative to conventional reverse osmosis (RO) technology, which can desalinate ocean water effectively, but requires electricity to drive the separation, and so remains expensive. Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL;…
October 2019 Plant Watch
Plant Watch Total-Corbion JV inaugurates PLA bioplastics plant in Thailand September 13, 2019 — Total Corbion PLA, a 50/50 joint venture (JV) between Total S.A. (Paris, France; www.total.com) and Corbion N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.corbion.com), has inaugurated its polylactic acid…
Air Movers for Dilute-Phase Pneumatic Conveying
Selecting the best air mover for a bulk-solids pneumatic-conveying application is a critical design decision. Provided here is information on three classes of air movers when dilute-phase pneumatic conveying is required In a typical bulk-solids pneumatic-conveying system, an air mover…
K Show Preview
K 2019, known as “The World’s No. 1 Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber” and scheduled to take place in Düsseldorf, Germany from October 16 to 23, is fully booked. Over 3,000 exhibitors from more than 60 countries have registered…
Robots Enter the CPI
Long used for discrete manufacturing, robots are now making their way into product-development laboratories and even production sites Unlike some industrial sectors, such as mining and discrete manufacturing, where the use of robotics continues to streamline operations at the expense…