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AGC transfers shares of polymer material business to Saint-Gobain
AGC Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) has entered into a share transfer agreement with Saint-Gobain K.K. (Tokyo, Japan), the Japanese subsidiary of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. (Courbevoie, France). Under the agreement, AGC will transfer all of its shares in AGC Polymer Material…
ADM to expand oilseed crush capacity to meet North American renewable fuels demand
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM; Chicago, Illinois), a global leader in innovative solutions from nature, announced a series of investments designed to expand North American oilseed crush capacity and strengthen the company's ability to meet growing demand for renewable fuels and other…
Lallemand and Braskem launch bio-acetone coproduction platform for corn-ethanol industry
Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits (LBDS; Montreal, Queb., Canada), a global leader in yeast, enzymes, microbials and nutrition, and Braskem (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas and global leader in the production of biopolymers on an industrial…
Bp completes sale of Gelsenkirchen refinery to Klesch Group
bp plc (London, England) has completed the sale of its Gelsenkirchen refinery and related businesses to Klesch Group (London, England). The transaction supports bp's continued focus on disciplined capital allocation and is also expected to lower underlying operating expenditure by…
This new chemisorption system supports catalyst characterization
The Autosorb 3300 system introduces a new generation of flow chemisorption analysis designed to make advanced catalyst characterization more accessible, reproducible and efficient. Autosorb supports key chemisorption techniques used in catalyst research, development and quality control, including temperature-programmed reactions, pulse…
Taming reactive radicals to streamline C-glycoside drug synthesis
Many widely used pharmaceuticals depend on a carbohydrate class known as C-glycosides, which are metabolically stable and acid-resistant. Although they can be made from common sugars like dextrose, C-glycosides have proven difficult to synthesize due to the preponderance of hydroxyl…
Autonomous chemistry system identifies high-performing and tunable catalysts
Researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU; Raleigh; www.ncsu.edu) and the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill; www.unc.edu), with the support of Eastman Chemical Co. (www.eastman.com), have developed a closed-loop autonomous catalysis platform for identifying high-performing catalyst formulations and for…
Falling Films in Vessel CIP Applications
Applying an understanding of flow regimes and turbulence to clean-in-place (CIP) processes can optimize CIP cleaning efficiency, reducing water, solvent, energy and chemical use, while maintaining cGMP cleaning performance For vessels and bioreactors in bioprocessing applications, designing clean-in-place (CIP) cycles…
Precise molecular order results in remarkably thin monofilaments
A materials-science breakthrough for the production of ultra-fine monofilaments is now being commercialized by startup firm Z-Polymers (Lowell, Mass.; www.z-polymers.com). The company’s Tullomer-branded monofilaments support exceptionally thin functional fibers with low creep and shrinkage, while exhibiting extremely high mechanical strength…
Microwave irradiation and ion exchange lower cost of battery upcycling
Approaches for recycling cathode active materials from used lithium-ion batteries generally face a tradeoff wherein recovering materials with the widest range of possibilities for re-use, such as pyrometallurgical methods, generally require high energy and long process times, while direct-recycling approaches…