Latest News: Technologies
A new way to grow functional MOFs
A team from CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (Melbourne, Australia; www.csiro.au) has developed a new technique for growing smart materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which can be used in pollution control, or as catalysts, or for transporting drugs in…
Commercial production of ‘Bio-cokes’
Last month, construction was completed on the world’s first commercial plant to produce a next-generation solid fuel, called Bio-cokes, at Takatsuki, Japan. The renewable material is produced from forest residues and can be used as an alternative to coal-based coke…
A comprehensive zeolite database
A team led by Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu) researcher Michael Deem has assembled a database of 2.6 million possible unique zeolites — porous silicate minerals often used as catalysts or molecular sieves. The database of potential structures could inform efforts…
May Chementator Briefs
Wastewater reuse Aqua-Chem Inc. (Knoxville, Tenn.; www.aqua-chem.com) has developed a filtration-based process for purifying wastewater from large-scale carpet manufacturing. The process effectively removes dyes and other additives from wastewater to reduce concentrations from around 800 ppm to less than…
Freeze-drying based on fine-spray produces uniform microspheres
A freeze-drying system recently commercialized by ULVAC, Inc. (Chigasaki, Japan; www.ulvac.co.jp) produces spherical particles by spraying a solution into a vacuum chamber. The approach has numerous advantages over conventional freeze-drying, and can be used for generating dry powders in the…
CNT-enhanced membranes show promise for desalination method
By immobilizing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within polymer membrane pores, scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT; Newark, N.J.; www.njit.edu) were able to significantly improve the efficiency of desalination via a membrane distillation process. Somenath Mitra and colleagues at…
A step closer to commercial production of spider silk
Spider silk has many unique properties that make it suitable for applications such as coatings and medical products. As a protein, the silk is remarkably stable and is only destroyed physically or digested and recycled by the spider. However, an…
‘One-pot’ ammonia-borane recharging could boost fuel-cell vehicles
Ammonia borane’s (AB) capacity to contain and easily release large amounts of hydrogen has made it an attractive candidate to store the gas for onboard fuel-cell powered vehicles. A major technological hurdle that remains is how to reintroduce hydrogen to…
A new high-temperature alloy
Last month, Carpenter Technology Corp. (Wyomissing, Pa.; www.cartech.com) licensed an alumina-forming austenitic stainless-steel alloy developed at the U.S. Dept. of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Tenn.; www.ornl.gov). The new alloy is said to be unique in that the composition…
Coal slurry as a substitute for diesel fuel
An Australian team including CSIRO (Melbourne; www.csiro.au) and the Uni- versity of Newcastle (www.newcastle.edu.au) has developed an alternative pathway for producing ultra-low-ash coal that, the team believes, can be used to fuel diesel engines, thus providing the opportunity for diesel…