Last month, the synthesis stage of the bioliq (biomass to liquid Karlsruhe) pilot plant produced gasoline for the first time at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Germany; www.kit.edu). The achievement is a milestone in that all stages of the…
New gas-cloud imaging technology from Rebellion Photonics (Houston; www.rebellionphotonics.com) monitors facilities for gas leaks and is capable of imaging chemical releases in realtime, identifying and quantifying gas clouds over large sections of a facility (photo). The company’s technology aims to…
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU; Canberra; www.anu.edu.au), and the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia; www.unsw.edu.au) claim to have obtained a temperature- and frequency-independent colossal permittivity (CP) material with a low dielectric loss, making it strikingly superior…
Reforming catalyst Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) has introduced a new alkali-promoted steam-reforming catalyst, dubbed RK-400. RK-400 is engineered to protect against unwanted carbon formation while achieving a higher level of catalytic activity than those previously seen in…
A highly active nickel catalyst for performing cross-coupling reactions has been developed by the research group of professor Shu Kobayashi at the University of Tokyo (Japan; www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp). The researchers were able to immobilize nickel nanoparticles onto a polymer support matrix…
Strength with stress Shear forces usually break bonds in polymer materials, but a research team at Duke University (Durham, N.C.; www.duke.edu) has demonstrated for the first time synthetic polymers capable of forming new bonds in the presence of shear…
A process from Dow Water & Process Solutions (DW&PS; Edina, Minn.; www.dowwaterandprocess.com) uses a unique adsorbent resin to improve the taste of orange juice. Amberlite FPX66 is a macroreticular, non-functionalized adsorbent resin with a pore structure designed to capture a…
Lactose has been widely used as a pharmaceutical excipient, where the size and morphology of the particles of lactose significantly affect the functionality of the resultant drug product. Lactose particles produced by various methods exhibit various morphologies, such as spherical…
A continuous fermentation process for making biologically derived butanol from a variety of sugar feedstocks is operating at what developers call “lab-pilot” scale, producing 2.5 liters per day. Engineering studies conducted by the research team forecast that it could be…
Iron ore is traditionally pelletized using the binding agent bentonite to facilitate transport and handling. A new additive for pelletizing iron ore significantly reduces the volume of binding agent required, while improving pellet strength and production output. Developed by Clariant…