Latest News: Technologies
Pilot plant to produce ‘greener’ acrylonitrile at cost parity for carbon fiber
A pilot facility currently under construction in Charleston, W.Va. will produce renewable acrylonitrile (ACN) without requiring the traditional petroleum-based propylene as feedstock. Since ACN is the raw material used to make carbon fibers, the new route to ACN allows the…
Pilot plant for graphene production uses flash Joule heating
A pilot plant is scheduled to be completed later this year for the production of graphene using a technology known as flash Joule heating (FJH). Developed in the laboratory of James Tour at Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu), FJH involves forcing…
Making ‘green’ methanol from steel-mill gases
A process that produces methanol from the gases generated at a steel mill will soon be field tested. The process has been under development for the last five years by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy…
Chementator briefs
Enzymes in a Cage Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Germany; www.kit.edu) have embedded enzymes into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and demonstrated for the first time that stabilization by these frameworks is sufficient for use of the enzymes in…
This heat battery is a decarbonized, ‘drop-in’ replacement for industrial boilers
As the cost of renewable energy decreases, many organizations are looking to electrify their operations to reduce carbon emissions. One promising area for decarbonization is industrial heating, which accounts for a large fraction of global emissions. However, heating networks in…
Chementator Briefs
2D polymer Chemical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge; www.mit.edu) have synthesized two-dimensional sheets of polyaramide. The achievement, described in a February issue of Nature, is said to be the first time a polymer has been grown…
Solar clinker produced for the first time
Last month, Cemex, S.A.B. de C.V. (Cemex; Monterrey, Mexico; www.cemex.com) and Synhelion SA (Lugano, Switzerland; www.synhelion.com) successfully connected the clinker production process with the Synhelion solar receiver to produce solar clinker. The milestone is a first step towards fully solar-driven…
A new catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane
Converting propane to propylene by oxidative dehydrogenation with CO2 is an alternative route to conventional propane dehydrogenation, but existing catalysts for this conversion are not very efficient. Now, in a study described in a recent issue of Nature Catalysis, researchers…
PFAS destruction using supercritical water
The presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater and groundwater has garnered increased attention as a health and environmental issue because of their recalcitrance and bioaccumulation. To complement existing PFAS separation technologies, the Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio;…
Ultra-rapid production of battery materials using plasma technology
A new ultra-rapid plasma-based process could significantly expand the availability of premium materials for battery applications. Developed by 6K, Inc. (North Andover, Mass.; www.6kinc.com), UniMelt is a single-pass, continuous process that employs a proprietary microwave torch technology to create a…