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Using waste plastic to simultaneously make graphene and hydrogen
Building off of a process to efficiently manufacture graphene (see Chem. Eng., April 2022, p. 9), a team of researchers from Rice University (Houston, www.rice.edu) have uncovered that the process can be easily altered to also produce a nearly pure…
Business News: November 2023
Plant Watch BASF to build a new fermentation plant in Ludwigshafen October 12, 2023 — BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) is investing in a new fermentation plant for biological crop-protection products, such as fungicides, insecticides and seed treatments, at its…
Commercial Progress on Turquoise Hydrogen
Producing hydrogen via methane pyrolysis – termed ‘turquoise hydrogen’ – has thus far received less attention than ‘blue’ and ‘green’ H2, but it may offer advantages over both While the vast majority of current hydrogen production occurs by steam reforming…
The first H2-fired low-NOx burner for traveling-grate pelletizing plants
Last month, Metso Corp. (Espoo, Finland; www.mogroup.com) introduced a hydrogen-variant of its Ferroflame LowNOx burners as part of its NextGen Pelletizing plant product range. It is a first-of-its-kind burner to run on H2 and to operate on the LowNOx combustion…
Closed-loop CO2-based energy-storage system slated for Wisconsin
Alliant Energy (Madison, Wis.; www.alliantenergy.com) was recently selected to receive a $30-million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov/oced) for a proposed 200-MWh energy storage system. Alliant Energy’s new battery system,…
Hydrogen Production via Methane Pyrolysis: An Overview of ‘Turquoise’ Hydrogen
‘Turquoise’ hydrogen processes generate H2 without releasing CO2. Presented here are the opportunities and challenges for producing hydrogen by methane pyrolysis Hydrogen-producing processes are classified using a color scheme according to their carbon footprint (Table 1; [1–3]). So-called “turquoise hydrogen”…
Solids Flow Measurement in Specialty Chemicals: Seamless Integration
Continuous flow measurement is used at this Austrian specialty chemicals manufacturer for process optimization, as well as overload protection Sensing-plate weighing systems are often used for weighing free-flowing and very dusty bulk materials. Such solids flowmeters ensure reliable determination of…
Precise degradation control is key to advanced bioresorbable polymers
Bioresorbable polymers — those that degrade naturally over time and can be absorbed by the body — are essential for delivering a number of advanced biomedical technologies to patients, including long-acting injectable or implanted products, regenerative scaffolds, degradable medical devices,…
A single flow reactor produces a toxic precursor, an unstable reagent and product
The Vilsmeier reagent (VR), [(CH3)2 NCHCl]Cl, is necessary for producing a large range of pharmaceuticals, but it is unstable in air and is made from the toxic precursor phosgene (COCl2). A new flow-reactor system has been developed by Akihiko Tsuda,…
Management and Maintenance Strategies for Valves
Asset criticality and risk are primary among the many factors that must be considered to appropriately manage valves throughout their lifecycle Asset strategies usually define how assets will be treated in the different phases of an asset lifecycle, from acquisition…