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Powerful permanent magnets — without the rare-earth elements

Permanent magnets — materials that create their own persistent magnetic field — are frequently used in most types of electronics, turbines, engines and motors. Currently, nearly all powerful permanent magnets require rare-earth elements (REEs), such as neodymium or samarium. A…

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New electrode design improves electrochemical CO2-to-ethylene conversion

Electrochemically converting carbon dioxide into useful chemicals or fuels is a promising CO2-utilization strategy, but scaling up the process is a challenge. One reason is that the gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) used to facilitate contact between gaseous CO2, solid catalyst and…

CPI Outlook for 2025

The industrial sector consumes more than 80% of basic and specialty chemicals. Worldwide, industrial activity saw a modest recovery in 2024. Global industrial production is expected to have increased by 1.3% by the end of 2024, with predictions of about…

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Electrically powered heat pumps and vacuum pumps simplify CO2-capture retrofits

Meeting climate-change goals requires steep reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants and hard-to-abate industry operations. However, the energy required to release captured CO2 from sorbent material is a challenge for the economic viability of these efforts. Also, retrofitting…

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Chementator Briefs

Powerful permanent magnets Permanent magnets — materials that create their own persistent magnetic field — are frequently used in most types of electronics, turbines, engines and motors. Currently, nearly all powerful permanent magnets require rare-earth elements (REEs), such as neodymium…

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Entrainment Flooding and Weeping Velocities

Weeping and flooding phenomena set the vapor velocity in industrial distillation columns. Presented here are procedures for calculating flooding and weeping velocities in a four-pass sieve-tray column In industrial distillation, the term “weeping” is primarily used when the liquid in…

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Improve Ethylene Production Margins with Digitalization

Digitalization can help ethylene producers to flexibly respond to economic uncertainties and assess available options based on their existing infrastructure and priorities Post-pandemic, olefin and polyolefin producers have been faced with regional and global economic headwinds. Inflation, energy security, rising…

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Business News [January 2025]

Plant Watch Chevron upgrades Pasadena refinery to increase capacity and flexibility December 11, 2024 — Chevron Corp. (Houston; www.chevron.com) has completed a retrofit of its petroleum refinery in Pasadena, Texas, which is expected to increase product flexibility and expand the…

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Safeguarding the Hydrogen Economy: A Focus on Leak Detection and Mitigation

The use of fixed gas detectors can play a crucial role in mitigating the environmental impact of hydrogen leakage and help protect workers in the hydrogen value chain Governments, industry sectors and companies seeking sustainable energy sources to reduce greenhouse…

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Single-atom catalysis reduces water-splitting costs

One of the main limiting factors in the production of “green” hydrogen via electrochemical water splitting is the relatively slow rate of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the use of very expensive noble metals like iridium to catalyze the…