The idea of vendor-neutral industrial control systems built on open standards that allow for interoperability among hardware and software components has been swirling within the industrial automation industry for the past 12 years, but progress toward this objective to date…
Plant Watch Solstice Advanced Materials to expand uranium conversion site in Illinois February 11, 2026 — Solstice Advanced Materials (Morris Plains, N.J.; www.solstice.com) has invested in debottlenecking projects at its facility in Metropolis Works, Ill., resulting in a production expansion…
Traditional methods for making graphite involve heating premium needle coke and coal-tar pitch at temperatures above 3,000ºC in a process that requires several days of heating and cooling. A new process developed by researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory…
When scaling up from laboratory experiments to full-scale production, there are a strong set of reasons for constructing intermediate pilot-scale plants, but there are also some scale-up situations where it may pay off to skip the pilot studies Pilot-plant studies…
Flow batteries have been widely deployed in large-scale energy-storage applications in recent years, but the low energy density and high cost of the incumbent vanadium electrolyte limit the long-term return on investment of such systems. A new organic redox flow-battery…
Calcining limestone (CaCO3) to produce lime (CaO) is a key industrial process for making cement, steel and chemicals, among other uses. Lime production is a target for CO2-abatement efforts because it generates a great deal of CO2 emissions, not only…
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are a class of biodegradable plastic materials that can be produced via a range of biological processes. Due to their versatile production pathways and physical properties, they have become an emerging alternative to fossil-based plastics. A new production…
Fast-growing power densities within the server racks at new data centers often generate enough heat to quickly overwhelm legacy air- and liquid-cooling methods, and managing the thermal load is becoming a constraint for the data-center infrastructure that supports AI. A…
Scaling up new technologies is a strategic challenge requiring foresight and disciplined execution. Success demands designing pilot plants with scalability in mind. Applying a set of principles outlined here can reduce risk, improve investor confidence and enhance the likelihood of…
A new process called BioSintering takes advantage of plant-based bio-active molecules to fuse together particles at mild temperatures, yielding an alternative material for conventional ceramic tiles with a much lower carbon footprint. Developed by Dekiln (Manchester, U.K.; www.dekiln.com), the technology…