A technique for protecting structural steel from fire using the endothermic decomposition of magnesium hydroxide has been developed by a team from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Engineering, the University of Auckland (New Zealand; www.auckland.ac.nz). Led by professor…
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has introduced a new partial roasting process to purify copper and gold concentrates that are contaminated with arsenic, antimony and carbon. The process is a pretreatment stage for Cu- and Au-extraction plants, and enables the…
A challenge in recovering fissile material from spent nuclear fuel is separating radioactive components that cannot be reused as fuel. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratory (Albuquerque, N.M.; www.sandia.gov) have fabricated metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) capable of selectively capturing gaseous iodine from…
Earlier this year, the first polylactic acid (PLA) plant based on a new polymerization process was put into service by Synbra Technology in Etten Leur, the Netherlands. The plant — capable of producing up to 5,000 ton/yr of PLA —…
Earlier this year, the first polylactic acid (PLA) plant based on a new polymerization process was put into service by Synbra Technology in Etten Leur, the Netherlands. The plant — capable of producing up to 5,000 ton/yr of PLA —…
A naphtha-cracking process with improved yield, reduced coking and longer catalyst life is being developed in a five-year Japanese project led by professor Takashi Tatsumi at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TiTech; www.titech.ac.jp), with participation from the National Institute of…
A naphtha-cracking process with improved yield, reduced coking and longer catalyst life is being developed in a five-year Japanese project led by professor Takashi Tatsumi at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TiTech; www.titech.ac.jp), with participation from the National Institute of…
Professor Kenichiro Itami and coworkers at at Nagoya University (Nagoya, Japan; synth.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp) have developed a new, next-generation type of cross-coupling reaction for synthesizing biphenyl compounds — one of the most important backbone structures for pharmaceutical and electronics chemicals. The chemists…
Acidity is a critical parameter in the chemical process industries, and accurate measurements of pH can be important indicators for process quality control. A refreshed understanding of pH measurement can help to overcome process-specific challenges to measurement and to select…
An organosilica material with unique structural properties due to its nanoscale architecture has been used to extract hydrocarbons and other organic contaminants from water. Marketed as Osorb by ABS Materials Inc. (Wooster, Ohio; www.absmaterials.com), the nanostructured glass represents a platform…