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Facts At Your Fingertips: Genetic Engineering Tools in Industrial Microbiology
Industrial fermentation using bacteria, yeast and other microbes to produce specific products has the potential to reduce future dependence on fossil-fuel-derived chemicals. To further the economic viability of industrial fermentation processes, engineers have turned to genetic modification to stimulate production…
Use of AI in Chemical Manufacturing
Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere in industry, but the nuances of its application are not generally understood completely. Presented here are descriptions of the different subtypes of AI and their main applications currently in chemical processing The term…
This MOF selectively adsorbs CO2 from biogas and can be regenerated under mild conditions
Biogas — produced from anaerobic digestion of organic matter — contains a mixture of gases, with methane and carbon dioxide as the predominant components. To use biogas as a fuel source, purification of the gas is typically needed to remove…
This single-pot reaction scheme could open the path to recycling used tires
Recycling vehicle tires is complicated because the rubbers used (including butadiene and polyisoprene) are highly cross-linked, and because pyrolysis-based recycling of the rubbers generates environmentally hazardous compounds like benzene and dioxins. Now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at…
Conversion of CO2 gas to graphene successfully demonstrated
The ability to economically produce large scales of graphene will help to enable many high-performance applications, from smart packaging materials and medical devices to safer gas storage. A new process demonstrated at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI; San Antonio, Tex.; www.swri.org)…
Plant Watch: June 2025 Business News
Plant Watch Cariflex opens $355-million latex plant in Singapore May 15, 2025 — Cariflex Pte. Ltd. (Singapore; www.cariflex.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of DL Chemical Co., Ltd. (DL Chemical), inaugurated its new polyisoprene latex plant at Jurong Island, Singapore. With…
Molten-salt electrolysis process quickly scales up U.S. cobalt-refining capacity
A proprietary molten-salt electrolysis (MSE) process originally designed for battery manufacturing has now been re-optimized for North America’s first operational cobalt-refining plant. The DirectPlateTM MSE technology developed by Xerion Advanced Battery Corp. (Kettering, Ohio; www.xerionbattery.com; see Direct molten-salt electroplating cuts…
Generative and Agentic AI: Intelligent Manufacturing Evolves
As many chemical producers are developing and implementing comprehensive AI strategies, newer AI paradigms, such as generative and agentic platforms are set to transform the benefits AI can provide Due to the continuous generation of data and the complexity and…
Direct synthesis of C2 hydrocarbons using photoelectrochemistry
Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, Calif. www.lbl.gov), along with a host of collaborators, have made progress on an artificial photosynthesis system that converts CO2 into ethane and ethylene using nanostructured copper and perovskite. In a recent publication…
Product Focus: Seals and gaskets
This pump packing has a modular design The AMPS (Advanced Modular Packing System; photo) is a pump packing system designed to offer superior sealing efficiency and significantly reduce leakage and downtime while extending equipment life. It has a focus on…