Nanoscale materials have been added to engine lubricants to enhance performance for some time, but the use of such materials has been limited by their inability to remain suspended in the oils, and by their tendency to darken the color…
Zymergen (Emeryville, Calif.; www.zymergen.com) recently announced $300 million in new investments for the company’s fermentation-based platform technology that generates novel bio-based monomers for specialty products applications. Combining synthetic biology with machine-learning-enhanced automated screening, Zymergen’s technology has demonstrated the capability to…
Ethylene is an important petrochemical, but it may contain traces of acetylene that can destroy the catalysts used in downstream processes. The separation of ethylene and acetylene is difficult, and the main method, distillation, is energy intensive. A potential alternative…
Capacitors are attractive in large-scale energy-storage applications, such as electric vehicles or grid storage, because of their ability to rapidly charge and discharge, but their energy densities have been too small to allow their use in such applications. Researchers at…
Ethylene dichloride Recently, Chemetry (Moss Landing, Calif.; www.chemetrycorp.com) and Braskem (Sao Paulo, Brazil; www.braskem.com) announced their intent to construct and operate a demonstration plant using Chemetry’s eShuttle technology for the production of ethylene dichloride (EDC) in Brazil. The initial focus…
This month, a demonstration project to generate power from fuel cells running on biogas has begun at Asahi Breweries’ Ibaraki Brewery. Coordinated by Asahi Quality & Innovations, Ltd., an independent research subsidiary of Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; www.asahigroup-holdings.com),…
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU; Singapore; www.ntu.edu.sg), led by professor Madhavi Srinivasan, have developed a method of using orange peel waste to extract precious metals from spent lithium-ion batteries and to make batteries from those recovered metals, creating minimal…
MITO Material Solutions (Indianapolis, Ind.; www.mitomaterials.com) has developed a proprietary graphene-functionalization technique that produces unique strength-enhancing additives for a wide variety of polymers and composites. The additives significantly improve mechanical properties (including tensile strength, flexural modulus and others) of the…
Boosting the sensitivity of solid-state gas sensors is often achieved by incorporating nanostructured materials as the sensing element. However, interfacial effects at nanoparticles, grains or contacts can lead to non-linear responses, high electrical resistance or electrical noise. A possible way…
Researchers from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Universiy of Sydney (Sydney, Australia; www.sydney.edu.au), led by Alejandro Montoya, have developed an electrochemical oxidation process to clear up wastewater, which is heavily contaminated with organic and inorganic species…