Latest News: Technologies
Significantly reduce cyanide consumption in refractory gold-ore treatment
Traditionally, cyanide consumption with conventional bio-oxidation residues is higher than with residues produced through other oxidative technologies. The Outotec MesoTherm BIOX process, based on its proven mesophile BIOX process, offers an easy, cost-effective upgrade path that can cut cyanide consumption…
Pilot plant produces apatite from mine waste
In a project called ReeMAP, LKAB Minerals AB (Luleå, Sweden; www.lkabminerals.com) is developing technology to recycle mine waste to produce phosphorus mineral fertilizers, rare earth elements (REEs), fluorine and gypsum. The first step is to use the mine waste to…
Producing hydrogen (and more) from biomass
A new electrochemical system that uses biomass-derived lignin to produce hydrogen has been developed by a team from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (Ulsan, South Korea; www.unist.ac.kr), led by…
Improved catalyst production lowers electrolysis costs
Water electrolysis is widely used for hydrogen production, but there are still high costs associated with manufacturing advanced electrolysis catalysts, which may involve high temperatures and pressures or chemical vapor deposition. Extending research conducted at the University of Kansas’ Bioscience…
JDA to advance conversion of syngas to ethylene
A recently announced joint development agreement (JDA) between Enerkem Inc. (Montreal, Que.) and NOVA Chemicals (Calgary, Alta.) is aimed at developing recycling technology to allow difficult-to-recycle plastics (specifically #3–7 polymers), as well as other municipal solid waste (MSW), household waste…
FOG separation technology expands to new application areas
Fats, oil and grease (FOG) waste can create environmental problems for water-treatment and sewage systems, but can be a potential resource if collected and separated efficiently. A technology originally developed by Downey Ridge Environmental Co. (Lansing, W.Va.; www.greasezilla.com) to separate…
Chementator briefs
Isononyl alcohol Last month, Dow, Inc. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and Johnson Matthey (London, U.K.; www.matthey.com) announced that Zibo Qixiang Tengda Chemical Ltd. (QXTD; Linzi district, China; en.qxtdgf.com), has selected LP Oxo Technology to produce isononyl alcohol (INA) at its new…
Na-ion battery design eliminates crystal formation
Researchers at Washington State University (Pullman, Wash.; www.wsu.edu) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, Wash.; www.pnnl.gov) have created a cathode material and electrolyte system for a Na-ion battery that overcomes limitations observed with previous approaches to Na-ion batteries. Na-ion batteries…
High-resolution 3D-printing makes small, structured parts
Manufacturing of centimeter-sized test specimens for material characterization according to ISO standards has now been achieved for the first time with a technology that allows 3D-printing a feature size of 200 nm. UpNano GmbH (Vienna, Austria; www.upnano.at) succeeded in printing…
This self-sustaining cell makes electrolysis more practical
A team of researchers from Idaho National Laboratory (INL; Idaho Falls; www.inl.gov) has developed a new electrode material that simplifies hydrogen generation and energy storage via protonic, ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs). Conventional electrolysis technologies use electricity to efficiently split water,…