The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; www.osha.gov) issued Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs in Construction to help industry employers develop proactive programs to keep their workplaces safe. The recommendations may be particularly helpful to small- and medium-sized…
Gurit Holding AG (Wattwil, Switzerland; www.gurit.com) announced that it has acquired BASF`s PET (polyethylene terephthalate) structural foam business for an undisclosed purchase price. The transaction comprises BASF`s PET operations in Italy, including its staff, operating assets and product IP in…
December 2015 marked a landmark international agreement to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures. This agreement, made at the 21st Conference of the Parties to…
Bio foam control Last month, Novozymes A/S (Bagsvaerd, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) introduced Fermax, an enzyme protease that prevents foam development during the sugarcane ethanol fermentation process, while delivering improved control and replacing chemicals. For an average size plant, trialing partners experienced…
Scandium International Mining Corp. (Sparks, Nev.; www.scandiummining.com) is about to become the first company to achieve production from a primary scandium mine, with its project near the small town of Nyngan, New South Wales, Australia. The production of scandium from…
Demand for carbon fiber (CF), which can be used to make strong, lightweight composite materials for improving vehicle fuel economy and wind-power generation, has been growing. However, widespread use of these advanced composites has been limited by the high production…
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, Wash.; www.pnnl.gov) has developed a hydrothermal liquification (HTL) process that converts sewage sludge directly into “biocrude oil,” which can then be refined by conventional methods into liquid fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet…
The glass industry’s needs are extremely diverse, and manufacturers demand stability and precision in their furnace operations. Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com/glass) has released an advanced burner, the patent-pending Cleanfire HR e, which is said to be the first…
Last month, the first compact plant to produce synthetic fuels from solar energy and CO2 extracted from air was commissioned in Finland, as part of the Soletair project, which is coordinated by the Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT: Espoo;…
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Germany; www.kit.edu) is cooperating with research institutions and industry partners to develop a novel process chain for the synthesis of methanol, either without the use of fossil resources or by reusing CO2 from undesired…