Latest News: Technologies
Chementator briefs
Mercury sorbent A palladium-on-alumina sorbent, designed to remove mercury from synthesis gas in coal-gasification plants, has captured more than 98% of the mercury contained in a sour syngas stream in a test conducted by Southern Co. (Atlanta, Ga.; www.southernco.com). The…
A direct coal-liquefaction process goes commercial…
The world’s first commercial plant to produce liquid fuels by direct coal liquefaction is now being started up in Majata, Inner Mongolia, by Shenhua Group (Beijing). Designed to produce 25,000 bbl/d of syncrude from 4,300 metric tons per day (m.t./d)…
Add CaC2 to improve the efficiency of steelmaking furnaces
An innovation that improves the steelmaking efficiency of an electric arc furnace (EAF) by adding calcium carbide to the process has been developed by NuFlux, LLC (Warren, Ohio), a producer of steelmaking fluxes, and Carbide Industries LLC (Louisville, Ky.; www.carbidellc.com),…
A one-step process for extracting oil from algae…
Algae offer a ubiquitous, renewable source of oil for fuels and various chemical products ( CE, September 2008, pp. 22–25), but the extraction of oil from the algae cells is an energy-intensive process that involves dewatering and drying the biomass,…
A shocking way to compress CO2
Compressing carbon dioxide captured from power plants to 1,500–2,200 psia for pipeline transmission or underground injection is a challenge that requires eight stages or more, using conventional compressors. A compressor that promises to do the job in two stages, for…
Upgrading natural gas
A process that produces hydrogen-enriched natural gas, with carbon black as a byproduct, is being developed by Atlantic Hydrogen Inc. (Fredericton NB, Canada; www.atlantichydrogen.com). The company has piloted the process at a scale of 25 m3/h of natural gas…
A microreactor makes HMF from just sugar and water
Hajime Kawanami and colleagues at the AIST Tohoku Collaboration Center, Research Center for Compact Chemical Process, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Sendai, Japan; www.aist.go.jp) have developed a continuous, one-step process for synthesizing hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a biologically…
Petroleum refiners seek to increase distillate yield, decrease emissions . . .
Strategies for extracting more distillate from petroleum to meet the growing demand for diesel fuel constituted a major theme of the recent annual meeting of the National Petrochemical and Petroleum Refiners Association (NPRA, Washington D.C.; www.npra.gov) in San Antonio, Tex.…
Reducing foundry emissions
Cast parts, such as engine blocks, are typically made by pouring molten metal into so-called cores — sand-based molds that have internal passages for the component to be cast. Such casting cores are typically made by reacting sand with organic…
Cold-war cleanup
On March 31, U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.) Secretary Steven Chu announced $6 billion in new funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate environmental cleanup work and create jobs across 12 states. Projects identified for…