Latest News: Technologies
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…
Another potential outlet for glycerin
Hiroshi Abe and colleagues at Biochemical Group of Research Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Chemistry, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Tsukuba, Japan; www.aist.go.jp) have discovered a strain of acetic-acid bacteria (which normally oxidize ethanol into acetic acid)…
A new static mixer delivers substantial cost savings
At Achema last month (May 11–15; Frankfurt, Germany), Sulzer Chemtech AG (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzerchemtech.com) launched a new static mixer, the SMX plus. For homogenizing viscous fluid, the new SMX plus has about half the pressure drop of the company’s standard…
Progress in underground coal gasification
The world’s first demonstration plant combining underground coal gasification and gas-to-liquids (GTL) technologies in the same facility was officially opened on April 22 in Chinchilla, 350 km northwest of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The plant is operated by Linc Energy Ltd…
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…
Alkaline-earth-based catalysts for C–C bond formation
Salts of alkaline-earth metals have been shown to catalyze reactions for the selective formation of carbon-carbon bonds, by chemistry professor Shu Kobayashi and colleagues at the University of Tokyo (www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp). The research, supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency…
May Chementator Briefs
Wireless add-on ABB Instrumentation (Warminster, Pa.; www.abb.com/instrumentation) has made its entry into wireless communications technology with the WirelessHART upgrade adapter, previewed at ABB’s recent Automation & Power World. This adapter is used to connect existing HART transmitters that are wired…
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.…