A process that uses magnetic nanoparticles, coated with a reactive material, to clean up contaminated water for human use is being developed at Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.; www.stanford.edu). The nanoscavengers, as they are called, are distributed in the water to…
GE Power & Water (Trevose, Pa.; www.ge.com) has introduced a novel, dual-pronged approach to corrosion inhibition for boiler and steam-condensate systems in petroleum refineries. The technology is designed to prevent attack by acidic species on steam-system surfaces, providing reliability to…
New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki City; www.nedo.go.jp) and Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, both Japan; panasonic.net) have begun testing a new type of power-generation system that uses anisotropic solid-state composites that produce an electrical current when a temperature…
Ammonia is a promising candidate for scrubbing carbon dioxide from fluegas, since each ammonia molecule can absorb one molecule of CO2, whereas amine absorbers require two molecules to do the same job. However, because ammonia is volatile, the fluegas must…
On the heels of its successful scaleup of bio-butanol, Cobalt is looking for pathways to use that molecule as a building block for other products. The company has announced plans to build the first bio-butadiene plant in Asia. Projected to…
Freestanding nanowires exhibit ultrahigh elastic-strain limits (of up to 7%) and yield strengths. However, it has been difficult to exploit their properties in bulk composites, due to the mismatch between the elasticity of the nanowires and the elasticity of the…
Squalane, an emollient used in cosmetics, will be the first product of a biotechnology pilot plant now being started up by Nucelis Inc. (San Diego, Calif.; www.nucelis.com), a spin-off from Cibus (also of San Diego). The plant will use Cibus’…
Seiko PMC Corp. (Tokyo; www.seikopmc.co.jp) has installed a pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) at its Ryugasaki Factory, and will begin shipping samples next spring with the aim of commercial activities in 2015. In collaboration with professor…
Ceramic paper A paper-like material made from vanadium-pentoxide ceramic that is as hard as copper and can be folded or rolled up has been produced by scientists at Stuttgart University (www.uni-stuttgart.de), the Max-Planck Institute (MPI) for Intelligent Systems (www.is.mpg.de)…
Selecting air-pollution control equipment can be tricky. It’s not only difficult to determine which pollutants must be controlled, but also which type of equipment will best control them to required levels for any given process or facility because there is…