Developed two decades ago, Metso Outotec’s (MO; Helsinki, Finland; www.mogroup.com) Circored process is now being reintroduced as a proven way to help decarbonize the ironmaking process. Developed in the 1990s by the former Lurgi Metallurgie (now part of MO) and…
An expanding number of products are demonstrating the real-world feasibility of incorporating post-consumer polyethylene (PE) into asphalt paving for roadways and parking lots. The set of demonstration projects — part of the New End-Market Opportunities (NEMO) program, under the auspices…
Electrochem Technologies & Materials Inc. (Montreal, Canada; www.electrochem-technologies.com) produced pure electrolytic iron (99.995% Fe) using its patented FerWIN process (diagram) — a sustainable zero-carbon iron-making technology — from ferrous sulfate heptahydrate (copperas) originating from the sulfation of bauxite residues. This…
Ammonia produced using renewable energy is poised to be a crucial part of the hydrogen value chain as a mechanism for storing and transporting hydrogen. By combining two state-of-the art technologies for ammonia production and hydrogen storage, Hydrofuel Canada Inc.…
As chemical manufacturers continue to seek renewable alternatives for fossil-fuel feedstocks, bio-based ethanol is poised to be a crucial raw material in the ethylene value chain for products from jet fuel to plastics. The range of novel-shaped alumina catalyst developed…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and thyssenkrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) achieved measurable improvements in the STAR process, a proprietary dehydrogenation process from thyssenkrupp Uhde that can produce propylene from propane feedstocks, or iso-butylene from iso-butane feedstocks. Beginning in…
Last month, the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA; London, U.K.; https://gccassociation.org) revealed the first six startups that will be backed by its member companies as part of the first ever Innovandi “Open Challenge” in the race to achieve “net…
A multidisciplinary project to scale up a system capable of simultaneously capturing carbon dioxide from fluegas and converting it to ethanol has received $1.9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E; Washington, D.C.; arpa-e.energy.gov). The…
Mercury removal Scientists at Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia; www.flinders.edu.au) have further characterized their sulfur-limonene polysulfide polymer (Chem. Eng., December 2015, p. 12) to understand the conditions under which it can be used as a mercury sorbent. In a recent issue…
NITROGEN UTILIZATION Late March, the first nitrogen fertilizer produced from a wastewater-treatment plant sidestream was delivered to a farm in Sweden. The fertilizer was produced at a pilot plant that began operation last December at Ragn-Sells Högbytorp’s (www.ragensells.se) wastewater-treatment and…