Latest News: Technologies
Transporting more H2 gas
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has developed a new storage technology that will enable a much more efficient transport of larger amounts of hydrogen. The new solution works at a higher pressure of 500 bars (7,250 psi) and uses…
Plasma-modified CNTs show promise for water purification
An international team of researchers claims to have developed carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes with an ultrahigh specific-adsorption capacity for salt that is two orders of magnitude higher than that found in current activated-carbon-based water-treatment systems. The team includes researchers from…
KIT makes ‘gasoline’ for the first time
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…
Capture realtime images of gas leaks with this technology
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…
A new material for large-scale energy storage devices
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…
November Chementator Briefs
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…
Heat Transfer for Huge-Scale Fermentation
Industrial microbiology continues to hold the promise of producing an increasingly large array of commercially important chemicals because an ever-wider number of useful microbes is being developed and successfully deployed at commercially viable scales. Today, many of these bio-based chemicals…
New approach for biobutanol reaches ‘lab-pilot’ scale
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…
Pelletizing technology for iron ore improves strength and output
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…
An inexpensive iron catalyst for efficient hydrogenation reactions
The research group of Yasuhiro Uozumi and Yoichi Yamada at Riken (Saitama, Japan; www.riken.jp), in collaboration with professor Audrey Moores of McGill University (Montreal, Que.), has developed a highly efficient catalyst for performing hydrogenation reactions, which are important in the…