Latest News: Technologies
Autonomous control of a distillation column
Eneos Materials Corp. (formerly the elastomers business unit of JSR Corp.; www.eneos.co.jp) and Yokogawa Electric Corp. (both Tokyo, Japan; www.yokogawa.com) recently reached an agreement to officially adopt Yokogawa’s autonomous-control artificial intelligence (AI) technology for use at an Eneos Materials chemical…
Chemenator Briefs
Ore Benefication Last month, Torngat Metals Ltd. (Montréal, Que., Canada: www.torngatmetals.com) and Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.mogroup.com) signed a contract for large-volume, pilot-scale processing of ore. The focus of the agreement is to pilot test the beneficiation of ore extracted…
Lithium metal for next-generation batteries produced from Li2CO3 in pilot facility
In May, Li-Metal Corp. (Markham, Ont.; www.li-metal.com) announced the production of refined lithium metal from lithium carbonate salt using a new electrolysis process at the company’s pilot facility in Ontario, Canada. The lithium metal produced at the pilot plant is…
A photocatalytic platform for CO2 utilization
As more and more CO2 is finding its way into carbon-capture systems instead of the air, the demand for new technologies that actually utilize CO2 is also rising. A new photocatalysis platform developed by New Iridium (Boulder, Colo.; www.newiridium.com) can…
A new class of proton-conducting materials operates at lower temperatures
A new material could open the door to more effective protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs). PCFCs are a promising energy source that employ specialized ceramic materials to conduct protons (instead of electrons) at much lower temperatures than typical solid-oxide fuel…
This photocatalytic reactor system makes chemicals without fossil fuels
Last May, Emerson (St. Louis, Mo.; www.emerson.com) was selected by Syzygy Plasmonics (Houston; www.plasmonics.tech) to automate its all-electric photocatalytic reactor technology. Syzygy has developed, scaled and integrated its core technologies, incubated at, and licensed from, Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu), into…
Photochemistry boosts the yield of chiral compounds
Isolation and purification of pure, active enantiomers is important in the development of active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug products. However, recovering the desired optical isomer from a racemic mixture means half of the chemical produced — the undesired isomer —…
Commercial debut for a batch reverse-osmosis system
Earlier this year, Salinity Solutions Ltd. (Coventry, U.K.; www.salinitysolutions.co.uk) signed an agreement with Te-Tech Process Solutions (Totton, Southampton, U.K.; www.te-tech.co.uk) to manufacture commercial water-purification systems based on batch reverse-osmosis (RO). This technology, originally characterized and developed at the University of…
Use existing refinery infrastructure for hydrogen storage and transport
Hydrogen is a clear piece of the decarbonization puzzle for many industrial sectors, including petroleum refining, but a major challenge lies in the storage and long-distance transport of hydrogen in its gaseous form. One proposed solution is the use of…
Onsite bioelectrochemical treatment for ultra-concentrated wastewater
The combination of electrochemical principles and microbial activity is the backbone of a treatment technology designed specifically for ultra-concentrated and challenging industrial wastewater. The Bioelectrochemical Treatment Technology (BETT) developed by Aquacycl (Escondido, Calif.; www.aquacycl.com) involves “microbial fuel-cells” that produce direct…