A large renewable hydrogen production facility, called the Murchison House Station, near the coastal town of Kalbarri, has been unveiled for Western Australia, with plans for up to 5 GW of a combined solar and wind project. The project has…
Hydrogen derived from water and renewable electricity, rather than from natural gas, could offer abundant energy without carbon dioxide emissions if water-splitting processes could be scaled up effectively. But the best catalyst for the reaction — platinum — is scarce…
Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are widely used in wastewater treatment plants because they intensify the biotreatment process, reduce the number of processing stages, retain the biocatalyst and help remove the product from the suspended solids. In order to take advantage of…
A team of scientists in Kentucky are working to harness the unique material properties of diamonds — hardness, thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity and more — for advanced industrial applications, including biosensors and high-frequency and high-power devices. Kentucky Advanced Materials Manufacturing…
Adipate diesters are building blocks of polyamides and polyesters, and are used in plasticizers, perfumes, lubricants, solvents, various pharmaceutical active ingredients and, in terms of quantity, mainly for the production of nylon. Currently, adipate diesters are produced industrially by oxidizing…
Ultrathin membrane Researchers led by professors Hideto Matsuyama and Tomohisa Yoshioka at Kobe University’s Research Center for Membrane and Film Technology (Japan; www.research.kobe-u.ac.jp) have developed an ultrathin, fouling-resistant membrane that separates oil from water. Described in a recent issue of…
Dynamic Modifiers LLC (Atlanta, Ga.; www.dynamicmodifiers.com), a maker of custom polyolefin compounds, recently introduced PAL…VersaCHAR, a non-halogenated flame-retardant polymer designed to be molded over other materials. When exposed to flame, the formulation’s surface chars quickly, which prevents flame spread and…
An international team of researchers has developed metallic nanoparticles that imitate enzymes to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol and propanol, which are common raw materials for the chemical industry. The team includes professors Justin Gooding and Richard Tilley from the…
Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (Singapore; https://smart.mit.edu) have discovered a way to study the properties of a nanoparticle without damaging it, which has not been possible so far. The work was led by Michael Strano, a…
Professor Monoj Kumar Mondal and Anuj Kumar Prajapati from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India; www.iitbhu.ac.in) have used nanoporous activated garlic stem carbon (AGSC) — prepared from garlic stem waste…