PDH catalyst Last month, Clariant's Catalyst business (Munich, Germany; www.clariant.com) launched its latest propane dehydrogenation (PDH) catalyst, Catofin 311, which is said to deliver greater selectivity and a longer lifetime than its predecessors, resulting in increased overall profitability for propylene…
Lignin — a component making up 25–35% of woody biomass — is underutilized as a byproduct of biofuels production and paper-making processes. Because of its abundance, low-cost and sustainability, lignin is being investigated as a raw material for making higher-value…
In a paper published last month in Nature Energy, scientists from the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonie (ICIQ; Tarragona, Spain; www.iciq.org) describe how, for the first time, a magnet has been used to directly enhance the production of hydrogen…
Last month, a consortium of 11 European partners, including ArcelorMittal, Axens, IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) and Total, launched a project to demonstrate an innovative process called DMX for capturing CO2 from industrial activities. It is part of a more comprehensive…
Low-frequency noise (≤500 Hz) from various sources, such as construction machinery and aircrafts, is a form of noise pollution that transmits over long distances and disturbs the surrounding area. It is also known to trigger several negative physiological reactions, such…
Twofold C–H activation and cross-coupling of stoichiometric amounts of organic molecules, R1–H and R2–H, to form an R1–R2 product that is free of homocoupling products (R1–R1 or R2–R2) is a goal to simplify organic synthesis of certain compounds. Up to…
Enzymes that are responsible for the production of hydrocarbons in blue-green algae — a hydrocarbon producing cyanobacteria — have now been identified by the research group of Munehito Arai at The University of Tokyo (Japan; www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp). Along with this achievement,…
Thyssenkrupp Materials Services GmbH (Essen, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-materials-services.com) continues to drive digital transformation: since early 2019, an artificial intelligence (AI) solution, supported by Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure, has been integrated into the processes of the largest materials distribution and service provider…
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…