A research team, led by scientists at the Center for Molecular Bioengineering (B CUBE) at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany; www.tu-dresden.de), has converted mineral shells of single-celled algae into lead-halide perovskites with tunable physical properties. The new perovskites have…
PS Recycling INEOS Styrolution America LLC (Aurora, Ill.; www.ineos-styrolution.com) and Agilyx ASA (Oslo, Norway; www.agilyx.com) are advancing the development of a previously announced 100-ton/d TruStyrenyx chemical-recycling facility in Channahon, Illinois. TruStyrenyx is a partnership between Agilyx and Technip Energies N.V.…
In synthesizing a new molecule that mimics the nickel-iron (NiFe) hydrogenase enzyme, a team of researchers from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (www.illinois.edu) may have uncovered a promising alternative to the platinum-based catalysts typically used in the electrolysis of water to…
Membrane filtration plants are often used in the food and dairy industry to separate or concentrate substances without thermal stress. Until now, cleaning-in-place (CIP) operations for this equipment was energy- and water-intensive, requiring three or four individual cleaning steps with…
The gas subcooled process (GSP) is a method for low-temperature separation of natural-gas liquids (ethane, propane) from natural gas. Depending on the current market prices of ethane and propane, gas processors extract ethane from the natural gas or reject it…
The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M; Spain; www.uc3m.es) has patented a new system for capturing hyperspectral images — those capable of collecting information across a broad frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum (near-infrared, mid-infrared and terahertz). The system can…
The demand for vanillin vastly outstrips the natural resources of this flavoring agent. A chemical process is thus used to produce the required large quantities of vanillin from petroleum, which is far less expensive than obtaining the substance from fermented…
Chemists at Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; www.global.hokudai.ac.jp) and the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery have developed what is said to be the first high-performance catalyst specifically designed and optimized for solid-state, mechanochemical synthesis. The new approach was…
Last month, the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) awarded $3.2 million in funding for the Solar MEAD project, which aims to decarbonize cement production. This joint project is headed by Cemex, S.A.B. de C.V. (Cemex; Monterrey, Mexico;…
P-XYLENE FROM CO2 Last month, a Japanese consortium announced the successful production and purification of p-xylene produced from CO2 at pilot scale. The University of Toyama (www.u-toyama.ac.jp), Chiyoda Corp. (www.chiyodacorp.com) and HighChem Co., Ltd. (www.highchem.co.jp) have been collaborating on producing…