Rio Tinto (London, U.K.; www.riotinto.com) will shortly start up a pilot plant to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate from 90 years’ accumulated plant waste at its U.S. Borax operation in Boron, Calif. The waste is clay from the production of borates,…
A research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology (Pohang, South Korea; www.postech.ac.kr), led by professor Gyoo Yeol Jung, and Seoul National University (Seoul, South Korea; www.useoul.edu), led by professor Sang Woo Seo, has developed a new microorganism —…
Petroteq Energy Inc. (Sherman Oaks, Calif.; www.petroteq.energy) has achieved continuous operation at its oil-sands processing site in Utah, which is said to be the first commercial plant in the U.S. to extract and upgrade crude oil from U.S. oil sands.…
Efficient upcycling of post-consumer plastics, such as polyethylene (PE), is a key sustainability objective. New research by a team at Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, Ill.; www.anl.gov) and Ames Laboratory (Ames, Iowa; www.ameslab.gov) has resulted in a novel catalyst material that…
Effectively separating carbon dioxide from combustion exhaust or directly from air is essential for realizing net reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions, but existing technologies for CO2 capture (such as CO2-scrubbing with amines), involve parasitic energy losses, which make carbon-capture economics unfavorable.…
Chemistry professor Oliver Trapp and his colleagues at the Ludwig Maximilians-Universität München (LUM; Germany; www.en.uni-muenchen.de) have developed a new workflow for the production of formaldehyde, which is based on an algorithm constructed with the aid of machine learning (ML), optimization…
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU; Singapore; www.ntu.edu.sg) have developed a device for atmospheric monitoring that can identify a wide range of airborne gases and chemicals instantly. The prototype device is portable and suitable for rapid deployment by agencies to…
Last month, Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) and Siemens AG (Munich, both Germany; www.siemens.com) launched a second phase of their joint research project, Rheticus II, which aims to develop a test plant that will use CO2 and water, as…
Carbon fibers are typically fabricated by the oxidation of a polymeric fiber, such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN) at 200–300°C, which generates a large amount of exhaust air containing several hundred parts per million (ppm) of hydrogen cyanide and ammonia. This is…
A new carbon-utilization technology developed by SeeO2 Energy Inc. (Calgary, Alta., Canada; www.seeo2energy.com) takes advantage of thermodynamics in a high-temperature electrolyzer to efficiently convert carbon dioxide into CO and O2 with 100% selectivity. Based on the principle of a reversible…