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New cable compound contains 50% recycled content and reduces product carbon emissions
This company has completed customer validation of CHBA-8241RC, an eco-friendly power-cable jacket compound containing recycled content, and is moving forward with full-scale commercialization. CHBA-8241RC is a high-density polyethylene-based compound containing 50% post-consumer recycled plastic content. Developed using proprietary technology, the…
Eco-friendly method for making MOF-encapsulated enzymes expands possibilities
Enzyme-based biocatalysts are a key aspect of industrial green-chemistry initiatives, but they often don’t have the required stability to perform in industrial settings. A strategy for allowing enzymes to function longer and under harsher conditions has been to encapsulate them…
Facts At Your Fingertips: Net Positive Suction Head: NPSHa versus NPSHr
Net positive suction head (NPSH) is a crucial topic for the design, selection and operation of pump systems in chemical process industries (CPI) facilities. This one-page reference provides information about NPSH available (NPSHa) and NPSH required (NPSHr). Hydrostatic pressure Hydrostatic…
A more straightforward condensation route from bioethanol to linear alcohols
Linear alcohols, such as butanol, hexanol and octanol are widely used in coatings, adhesives, surfactants, detergents, lubricants, cosmetics and many other products, as well as fuels. Typical industrial methods for producing these alcohols rely on fossil resources and low-selectivity mechanisms…
Novel microwave method reshapes thermal regeneration for direct-air CO2 capture
Many direct-air capture (DAC) technologies employ sorbent materials to remove CO2 from ambient air. These sorbents require periodic thermal regeneration — typically using steam — to release bound CO2. This thermal regeneration step is often the largest cost and energy…
Alkaline thermal process generates hydrogen fuel from mixed plastic waste
A team of researchers from the Ewha Women’s University (Seoul, South Korea; www.ewha.ac.kr) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA; www.ucla.edu) have taken a step toward addressing one of the main challenges in plastics recycling — economically processing…
New electrochemical route to critical chemicals is scaling up with significant industrial support
A new electrochemical process developed by French-American startup firm Dioxycle (Paris, France; Menlo Park, Calif.; www.dioxycle.com) produces critical chemicals from industrial by-products and electricity, independent from fossil-fuel imports. Recently, the company announced the deployment of their platform for the conversion…
Electro-extraction technique unlocks copper in waste streams
Initiatives to increase electrification and build digital infrastructure for artificial intelligence are among the trends increasing demand for copper (and other critical materials), prompting efforts to identify new sources of the metal. The startup company SiTration (Watertown, Mass.; www.sitration.com), a…
Refinery-grade crude oils can be made from biogenic waste using this technology
A pre-commercial plant is now providing operational data for eventual scaleup and industrial integration of a technology that generates refinery-grade crude oils from biogenic waste, such as agricultural and forestry waste and sewage sludge. The 12-ton/d demonstration plant (photo), built…
Printable gel electrolytes support bespoke battery architectures
Unlike conventional liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries, gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) are immobilized within a polymer network, which reduces leakage risks, thereby improving mechanical and thermal stability. However, current methods for GPE fabrication result only in two-dimensional planar films,…