Rare-earth elements (REEs), such as scandium, are in high demand, but it is often difficult to economically recover and extract them. Now, II-VI Inc. (Saxonburg, Pa.; www.ii-vi.com) has developed a patent-pending process utilizing selective ion recovery (SIR) that enables highly…
Renewable jet fuel At the end of last October, euglena Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.euglena.jp) completed the construction of Japan’s first demonstration plant for the production of renewable jet and diesel fuel in Yokohama. The $58-million pilot plant, located at the…
Existing methane fuel cells typically require high (750–800°C) temperatures to activate methane in a separate methane reformer that creates hydrogen gas. Now researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech; Atlanta; www.gatech.edu) have developed a solid oxide fuel cell…
Microbial electrochemical reduction (MER) of CO2 into value-added chemicals is a potential way to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. MER uses chemolithoautotrophs, which are microbes found in the deep sea, in caves and in hydrothermal vents. These bacteria get their…
Efforts to find more environmentally friendly anti-scalant approaches have yielded a new form of functionalized nanocellulose that can prevent the nucleation and growth of calcium carbonate, the most common component of industrial scale. Based on the biopolymer cellulose, the anti-scaling…
Last month, construction began on a demonstration facility that integrates high-performance entrained-flow gasification technology and Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis for making jet fuel from woody biomass. The demonstration project is being carried out by a Japanese consortium, led by Mitsubishi Hitachi…
Plastic-bottle waste is toxic and non-biodegradable, and has become a major environmental issue. It often ends up in the oceans, affecting marine life, or in landfills, contaminating groundwater and affecting land use. Now a team led by professors Nhan Phan-Thien…
A team from the University of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky.; www.uky.edu) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Blacksburg, Va.; www.vt.edu) has set up a novel pilot plant to recover rare-earth elements (REEs) from coal-based sources, aiming to produce high-grade REE concentrates from coal-based…
A research team from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia; www.unsw.edu.au) and Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Bochum, Germany; www.ruhr-universität-bochum.de) has succeeded in transferring structural characteristics of natural enzymes to metallic nanoparticles, achieving high catalytic activity. In the case of enzymes,…
The increased demand for lithium in recent years — driven mainly by battery manufacturing — has broadened the scope of lithium-processing technologies. Typically, lithium is mined from spodumene ore or sourced from brine deposits, but a new process enables lithium’s…