Latest News
New plasma-powered process directly converts methane to graphene oxide
Researchers at Texas A&M University (College Station; www.tamu.edu) have developed a fundamentally new route to graphene oxide (GO) synthesis using non-thermal atmospheric plasma — a method that sidesteps the toxic chemicals and scalability limitations that often constrain conventional production approaches.…
Scaleup planned for system that can decarbonize furnace-based processes
Technology spun out from the University of Birmingham (www.birmingham.ac.uk) and developed by the startup PeroCycle Ltd. (Cambridge, U.K.; www.perocycle.com) is aimed at low-cost decarbonization of blast-furnace and direct-reduced-iron (DRI) steel-making operations, along with other furnace-based industrial processes, like glass-making. The…
Sorbent-based ammonia-production system lowers cost and allows modularity
World-scale ammonia-production plants based on the Haber-Bosch process supply the ammonia for most of today’s agricultural fertilizer industry. But building new capacity for ammonia production is economically difficult because of the high capital expenditures needed for plants large enough to…
Industrial Heat Pumps for Waste-Heat Upgrading
Electrification of industrial processes using heat pumps is moving from niche applications toward the mainstream, but challenges to their implementation remain Decarbonization initiatives have focused attention on the production of process heat for industrial operations without the combustion of fossil…
Offtake agreement inked for system that produces methanol from stranded methane economically
In late August, technology developer Emvolon, a spinout company from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, Mass.; www.mit.edu), signed an offtake agreement with Freepoint Commodities LLC (www.freepoint.com) for methanol produced commercially via Emvolon’s technology starting in spring 2027. The…
Facts At Your Fingertips: Real-Time Particle-Size Measurement
Particle size is a key parameter in many solids-handling processes, and can have a strong influence on product performance and quality, as well as for effectiveness of downstream operations. One important approach to particle-size measurement is conducting real-time, inline measurement…
Layered graphite membrane has internal structure to aid water separation from IPA
Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is a key industrial solvent for the pharmaceuticals, electronics and fine chemicals sectors, among other uses, but methods for making IPA leave water-alcohol mixtures that need to be separated to achieve the purities required for industrial use.…
Canada takes the stage with major energy and mineral investments
The first-ever Canada Investment Summit, held Sept. 14–15 in Toronto, along with other recent funding initiatives and global partnerships, put the spotlight on Canada’s support for innovation and competitiveness in energy, manufacturing and critical materials. The Summit convened investors from…
These “self-driving” bioreactor sensors are forging new fermentation frontiers
Ubiquitous in biomanufacturing, fermentation processes are complex and unpredictable when compared to traditional chemical-processing operations. From changing cell-growth rates to drifts in environmental conditions, typical control approaches can only react to predetermined setpoints rather than reliably maximize product output. A…
Testing Hydrogen Infrastructure Materials: A Practical Framework
As hydrogen infrastructure expands, existing material-qualification frameworks must keep pace with hydrogen-specific degradation risks, such as embrittlement, stress corrosion cracking, permeation and accelerated aging Hydrogen infrastructure deployment is speeding up in the chemical process industries (CPI). However, the material qualification…