Recycling materials, such as plastics and metals, is an attractive, but challenging path toward sustainable material manufacture. Now, researchers have made a discovery that may have far-reaching implications in material manufacture by positioning carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers as a sustainable…
In December 2024, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, Wash.; www.pnnl.gov) announced a three-year collaborative project with vehicle-tire manufacturer Bridgestone (Tokyo, Japan; www.bridgestone.com) to scale up a thermocatalytic process for converting renewably derived ethanol to n-butene. Conventionally, n-butene is…
Desalination of seawater with reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is a key technology for addressing water scarcity issues around the globe, but seawater desalination is energy-intensive and the brine discharge can create coastal environmental problems. The company Flocean AS (Oslo, Norway;…
The wide range of performance properties of polyurethane foams makes them essential in many consumer goods. Thus, there is much effort going into creating a more environmentally friendly production process for polyurethane’s main building blocks, polyols and isocyanates. While much…
Developing sustainable pathways to ethylene — among the world’s most widely used chemicals — is a key element in decarbonizing the process industries. A new electrolysis technology developed by CERT Systems (Toronto, Ont., Canada; www.co2cert.com) can produce ethylene from CO2…
Construction is imminent for a carbon-capture project aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from steel production while producing carbon-neutral calcium carbonate. At the U.S. Steel (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ussteel.com) manufacturing facility in Gary, Ind., a carbon-capture system designed by CarbonFree (San Antonio,…
Quality control processes can have a reputation for being redundant or tedious, but they play a fundamental role in producing consistent and effective products. When it comes to the manufacturing of products for the medical and life-sciences sectors, these processes…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany) has signed a term sheet with Dutch company VoltH2 to advance green hydrogen production at the Delfzijl chemical park. According to the agreement, VoltH2 will construct a 50-MW electrolyzer near Evonik's hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plant.…
Heraeus Precious Metals has recently entered two partnerships aimed at advancing green hydrogen production via proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis. Mattiq In collaboration with Mattiq (Skokie, Ill.), Heraeus Precious Metals is working to develop and commercialize advanced electrocatalyst materials for green…
Lhyfe (Paris, France) has announced plans to build its first green-hydrogen plant in northern France. The new production site under construction by the company is in Croixrault, in the Somme region of Hauts-de-France. Thanks to its strategic location and Lhyfe’s…