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…
A new study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; Golden, Colo.; www.nrel.gov) demonstrates the conversion of lignin-derived compounds to adipic acid, an important precursor for making nylon and other chemicals. The new route offers a “greener” alternative to conventional…
Biomass is a recalcitrant, heterogeneous matrix of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin that resists microbial and enzymatic breakdown. Overcoming this recalcitrance is the major economic barrier to the conversion of biomass to sugars or other chemicals. Heat, acid and other chemicals…
Adgex Ltd. (Sydney, Australia; www.adgex.com) is marketing a plant, tradenamed “Green Blaze,” for processing organic raw materials by means of high-speed ablative pyrolysis. According to the company, the plant (flowsheet) can be adapted to convert into synthetic fuel almost any…
Joule Unlimited (Bedford, Mass.; www.jouleunlimited.com) announced recently that it has achieved end-to-end production of ethanol from carbon dioxide and sunlight (CO2-to-ethanol), using its specially designed photobioreactor and engineered cyanobacteria. The full production runs occurred late last year at the company’s…
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…