This column is based on “Terephthalic Acid Production from p-Xylene — Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/terephthalic-acid-production-cost. Terephthalic acid is an aromatic dicarboxylic acid, mainly used to produce saturated polyesters, primarily PET (polyethylene…
Last month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the approval of New York’s Clean Energy Standard, which according to the governor’s office is “the most comprehensive and ambitious clean energy mandate in the state’s history, to fight climate change, reduce…
Communicating in acronyms I finally got around to reading the May 2016 issue of Chemical Engineering. I was fascinated with the editorial [p.5]. I have been an engineer since 1968 and in the EH&S (environmental, health and safety) field since…
Spent invert drilling fluids, slop oil, rag layers, and tank bottoms often present as very tight emulsions having high brine and solids fractions that render them difficult and economically unfeasible to break and separate by traditional means, says Ron Drake,…
Processing oil sands is a mechanically intense process that involves pumping steam underground to emulsify crude petroleum. The procedure presents what MCW Energy Group (Toronto, Ont.; www.mcwenergygroup.com) CEO and former Exxon executive Jerry Bailey calls an “environmental nightmare.” Among the…
Ionic liquids are being investigated as a way to break down cellulosic plant material in biofuels-production processes. A significant hurdle to their use is the fact that ionic liquids are toxic to the microbes used in biofuel production. Researchers from…
A newly developed process for manufacturing cyclohexasilane (CHS; Si6H12) offers a lower-cost and safer pathway to a material whose molecular architecture allows a wider range of material possibilities than alternative starting materials for several important silicon-based products. CHS can be…
Last month, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki, Japan; www.nedo.go.jp) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Innovation Agency (NIA; Bangkok, Thailand; www.nai.or.th) to work jointly on a project to demonstrate a manufacturing system…
Li-ion batteries Over the course of several battery charge/discharge cycles, microscopic fibers of lithium, called dendrites, sprout from the surface of the lithium electrode and spread across the electrolyte until they reach the other electrode. An electrical current passing through…
Scientists from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (Seoul; www.kist.re.kr) and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST; Ulsan, both Sout Korea; www.unist.ac.kr), led by UNIST’s professor Hyunhyub Ko, have developed smart adhesive pads — in the form…