In late September, GE Power & Water (Trevose, Pa.; www.gewater.com) introduced its new Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) technology, tradenamed ZeeLung, at the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (Weftec; Chicago, Ill., September 26–30; www.weftec.org). This technology is poised…
Coal could become a major source of lithium, according to a team led by professor Shenjun Qin, of Hebei University of Engineering (Handan, China; www.hebeu.edu.cn). From available data, the concentration of lithium in most coal varies between 10 and 50…
A newly launched technology known as Flare Buster is capable of converting natural gas streams, such as flare gas and stranded gas from remote sites, to synthesis gas (syngas) and then to synthetic crude oil via a Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis…
A new process technology from Aggreko North America plc (Houston; www.us.aggreko.com) aims to make turnarounds at petroleum refineries more cost-effective by decreasing the time required for catalyst cooling. The catalyst materials used for refining operations, such as hydrotreating, hydrocracking and…
Surface-modified ceramic materials have been developed to disinfect water and air and other fluids without requiring additional chemicals or energy input. Developed by Claire Technologies (Raleigh, N.C.; www.claire-tech.com), the disinfection media consist of silica- and alumina-based pellets that have been…
CO2 to formic acid Professor Yutaka Amao and colleagues at Osaka City University (Osaka City, Japan; www.osaka-cu.ac.jp/en) have enhanced the photocatalytic efficiency for the conversion of CO2 to formic acid by up to 20 times. The efficiency boost was achieved…
A new composite-membrane distillation process capable of removing salt, toxic elements and microorganisms from water is being offered commercially for the first time this month. The process, known as NanoClear, was developed by Dais Analytic Corp. (Odessa, Fla.; www.daisanalytic.com) for…
A novel solvent can reduce the costs of capturing and recovering carbon dioxide from gas mixtures compared to the use of amine-based solvents, such as monoethanolamine (MEA). The solvent, along with an associated cyclic absorption-desorption process, was developed by Carbon…
Biodiesel fuels are made by the transesterification of plant-derived triglycerides (fats and oils), a process that generates impure glycerin as a byproduct while consuming fossil-fuel-derived methanol. Although there have been efforts in recent years to utilize the large volumes of…
Organomagnesium compounds have become a highly important class of reagents in organic chemistry since the discovery of the Grignard Reaction more than 100 years ago. These compounds are powerful and inexpensive reagents that can be readily prepared from metallic magnesium…