Latest News: Technologies
New method selectively extracts magnesium salt from seawater
Magnesium metal is important for several emerging potential sustainability-related applications, including carbon capture, low-carbon cement and energy storage. These potential applications are driving efforts to efficiently produce magnesium hydroxide, the raw material for manufacturing Mg metal. It is possible to…
World’s largest AEM electrolyzer launched in California
An emerging electrolyzer technology for renewable hydrogen production is the anion-exchange membrane (AEM), which provides efficiency and cost benefits over other electrolyzer configurations. Until now, most AEM installations have been small, as the membrane assemblies’ size and durability limited the…
Chementator Briefs
Catalysts by AM In late September, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) introduced X3D, a new additive-manufacturing (AM; 3D printing) technology for shaping catalysts. Catalysts produced with this technology feature an open structure, resulting in a reduction of the pressure drop…
Engineering duckweed to increase oil production
Scientists at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; Upton, N.Y.; www.bnl.gov) and collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL; Laurel Hollow, N.Y.; www.cshl.edu) have genetically engineered a strain of duckweed (Lemna japonica) to produce high yields of…
A process for making improved composite insulation material
Hollow silica particles (HSPs) are materials of interest for thermal insulation applications because of their very low thermal conductivity, but the particles pose health hazards and the powder is impractical to use, so scientists have been trying to incorporate HSPs…
Another step towards ‘green’ steel
Last month, Metso Outotec Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.mogroup.com) introduced NextGen Pelletizing — a visionary concept for the next generation of iron-ore pelletizing plants that strive to be carbon neutral and autonomous. According to the company, the combination of innovations —…
Sputtering process enables production of large, iridium-lean MEAs
Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis uses a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) that integrates the electrolyte membrane and electrode (diagram). Large-scale hydrogen conversion of electricity requires a large number of MEAs, which is a drawback for scaleup, because the MEA relies on…
Engineering soybean plants to increase crop yield
For the first time, researchers have proven that multigene bioengineering of photosynthesis increases the yield of the major food crop soybean in field trials. An international collaborative team of the RIPE project (Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency), led by the University…
Batteries not required for this smart gas mask
Researchers from Chung-Ang University (Seoul, South Korea; https://neweng.cau.ac.kr) have developed a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that is operable via breathing and can, therefore, be integrated into gas masks. The device is capable of powering LEDs and Bluetooth trackers, and can monitor…
Chementator Briefs [October 2022]
E-Cracking Last month, construction began on the world’s first demonstration plant for large-scale, electrically heated steam cracker furnaces. The demonstration plant will be fully integrated into one of the existing steam crackers at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. It…