This summer, GFBiochemicals Green Future S.r.l. (Milan, Italy; www.gfbiochemicals.com) will start commercial-scale production of bio-based levulinic acid using its proprietary, continuous-production process. The company says it will produce 2,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) at its plant in Caserta, Italy…
Photosynthesis is one of the best ways to convert carbon dioxide into renewable energy and at the same time, reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In plants, there are two main steps in photosynthesis: First, water is split…
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO, Kawasaki; www.nedo.go.jp) and partners IHI Corp. (Tokyo; www.ihi.co.jp), Kobe University (www.kobe-u.ac.jp) and Neo-Morgan Laboratory Inc. (NML; Kawasaki, all Japan; www.neo-morgan.com) have completed construction on an outdoor test site with 1,500-m2 of…
Perfluorinated compounds — firefighting foams — such as perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS) have been used as fire suppressants, but some of them, such as perfluoroalkyl acids have been associated with serious environmental contamination. Also, several new fluorinated surfactants have been developed…
Takahiro Yamashita and colleagues at the Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO, Tsukuba, Japan; www.naro.affrc.go.jp) have developed an aerobic bioreactor that can reduce nitrous oxide emissions by nearly 90% in the treatment of…
Composite coating A new composite material that prevents metal corrosion, even under extreme conditions, has been developed by researchers from the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials GmbH (Germany; www.inm-gmbh.de). The patented composite consists of layers of particles placed…
A new prototype lithium battery with a very thin metal anode achieves an energy density of 1,200 W-h/L at room temperature — double that of conventional Li-ion batteries using graphite anodes. The prototype battery, developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technologys…
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki; www.nedo.go.jp) and Sankyo Tateyama Inc. (Takaoka, both Japan; www.st-grp.co.jp) have developed technology that enables the casting of small-diameter (500–100-mm dia.) magnesium alloy billets, which are suitable for direct, compact forging.…
Last January, Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby; www.topsoe.com) and FLSmidth A/S (Copenhagen, both Denmark; www.flsmidth.com) began a joint, global effort to commercialize a new catalytic filter-bag technology, which the partners have developed over the past four years. Tradenamed EnviroTex, these filter…
Two new proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) electrolysis systems have debuted, targeting applications that require large volumes of hydrogen. Prior to the launch of Proton OnSite’s (Wallingford, Conn.; www. protononsite.com) M1 and M2 modular H2-generation systems, the largest capacity commercially available from PEM…