Latest News: Technologies
Chementator briefs
Water treatment The recently introduced FoodPro ST line of water-treatment chemicals from GE Power & Water (Trevose, Pa.; www.ge.com) prevents corrosion and scale in stainless-steel sterilizers and pasteurizers in the food and beverage industry, and they are less expensive than…
Microbial processing of ore
Extraction of metals, such as lithium, from laterite ores is usually carried out through solubilization of metals by acids, such as sulfuric and hydrochloric acids. However, substantial metal recoveries from laterites have been achieved only through thermal pre-treatment of laterites,…
Catalytic ethane-cracking process allows lower-temperature operation
Aither Chemicals LLC (South Charleston, W.Va.; www.aitherchemicals.com) is planning to build a commercial-scale plant based on a catalytic ethane-cracking process that uses 80% less energy and generates 60% less carbon dioxide than conventional steam-cracking of ethane. The company has refined…
Progress for making smart membranes
Last month marked the completion of the three-year, €3.6-million E.U.-funded research project, Self-assembled Polymer Membranes (SelfMem). Coordinated by the Institute of Polymer Research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG; Germany; www.hzg.de), with twelve partners from industry and academia in Israel, Canada…
New catalysts for Baeyer-Villiger oxidation reactions
Kazuaki Ishihara and his group at Nagoya University (Japan; www.ishihara-lab.net) have established a new, environment friendly reaction technology — using Baeyer-Villiger oxidations — for selectively oxidizing ketones into esters. The reaction uses hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant, and has potential…
A little gold can reduce the Pt loading in fuel cells
A challenge in the development of polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cells is the durability and electrocatalytic activity of platinum-based electrocatalysts. The sluggishness of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) causes the fuel cell performance to be limited by the cathodic reaction, and…
Save energy (and more) with this hybrid compressor system for EOR
Last month, Lewa GmbH (Leonberg, Germany; www.lewa.de) and Burckhardt Compression AG (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.burckhardtcompression.com) signed an agreement to commercialize hybrid compression systems for enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) applications. EOR — injecting high-pressure CO2 into oil wells to both reduce the crude oil’s…
This fully functional Li-ion battery is flexible
A team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist; Daejeon, South Korea: www.kaist.ac.kr) and Seoul National University (www.useoul.edu) led by Kaist’s professor Keon Jae Lee, claims to have developed the first prototype of a fully functional all-flexible…
A nano cage made from a stack of benzenes
Professor Kenichoro Itami and his group at Nagoya University (synth.chem. nagoya-u.ac.jp) have synthesized a cage-type carbon nano-molecule, Carbon Nano-cage, composed of 20 condensed benzene rings — C120H78. The group used a procedure it developed four years ago to synthesize carbon…
A polymersome that releases its cargo where needed
Several drug delivery systems have been studied involving the encapsulation of molecules in a suitable structure and their transport through the human body. In particular, polymersomes — tiny hollow spheres that enclose a solution — formed using synthetic block copolymers…