An international study has found that coal-fired power stations emit more ultrafine dust particles than road traffic and that those dust particles can modify rainfall patterns and can, in general, have considerable impact on the climate. The study found that…
In early April, 6th Wave Innovations Corp. (Salt Lake City, Utah; www.6wic.com) and CyPlus GmbH (Hanau-Wolfgang, Germany; www.cyplus.com) signed a sales and marketing representative agreement for IXOS nanotech gold extraction resin for the mining industry. CyPlus will represent 6th Wave…
Bio-based isobutanol is attractive as a renewable blendstock for gasoline because it has higher energy density than bioethanol, and does not impose vehicle-range penalties as a fuel additive, but thus far, processes to synthesize and isolate isobutanol have required a…
Hydrogen gas is used widely in industry, including in metal annealing, float-glass production and silicon wafer manufacturing, among others, but greater than 80% of the H2 used for these processes is typically vented or flared as waste. A new electrochemical…
The transition-metal-catalyzed reduction of nitrogen is an alternative to the traditional energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process for producing ammonia. In these reaction systems, metallocenes or potassium graphite are typically used as the reducing reagent, and conjugate acids of pyridines or related compounds…
The first high-strength, wrought-aluminum alloy powder designed for use in additive manufacturing (3-D printing) applications is moving into commercial production. The powder was developed by HRL Laboratories (Malibu, Calif.; www.hrl.com) for use in laser powder-bed fusion 3-D printers. The company…
Depolymerization Last month, DuPont Teijin Films Ltd. (DTF; Contern, Luxembourg; www.dupontteijinfilms.com) launched its new LuxCR depolymerization process, which upcycles post-consumer waste into a variety of biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) films. The LuxCR process depolymerizes mechanically recovered PET flake back…
Microalgae have been investigated as a source of “bio-crude” — fatty acid molecules (lipids) that can be refined into renewable transportation fuels — but harvesting lipids from the algae cells economically remains the most challenging and energy-intensive step in the…
A catalyst that performs low-temperature reforming of methane with carbon dioxide (dry methane reforming) into synthesis gas (syngas) has been developed by Japanese researchers, led by Hideki Abe at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS, Tsukuba City, www.nims.go.jp), in…
A new energy-storage process has begun operations at a large-scale pilot plant in Berlin, Germany. At the combined heat and power (CHP) facility of Swedish energy company Vattenfall, SaltX Technology AB (Hägersten, Sweden; www.saltxtechnology.com) constructed one 0.5-MW/10-MWh energy-storage unit using…