Latest News: Technologies
Waste garlic stems make an adsorbent for arsenic removal
Professor Monoj Kumar Mondal and Anuj Kumar Prajapati from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India; www.iitbhu.ac.in) have used nanoporous activated garlic stem carbon (AGSC) — prepared from garlic stem waste…
Integrated AC process eliminates refrigerants
With the goal of decreasing the climate impact of residential air conditioning (AC), Kraton Corp. (Houston; www.kraton.com) has developed the NexarCool technology in collaboration with Texas A&M University (College Station; www.tamu.edu), India Institute of Technology Bombay (www.iitb.ac.in) and Indian companies…
Chementator Briefs
Sludge to fuel Bio-sludge is a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process at Stora Enso Oy’s (Helsinki, Finland; www.storaenso.com) Heinola fluting mill in Finland. In the past, the mill had been burning the bio-sludge at the power station for generating…
Chementator Briefs
Direct route to PG Dow Inc. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) have entered into an exclusive technology partnership to develop a new process to make propylene glycol (PG). The key to the so-called Hyprosyn process…
Pursuing methanation as a means to recycle CO2
By the end of fiscal 2019, commissioning and continuous operation will begin on a new methanation plant that will produce 8 Nm3/h of methane from CO2 and H2. The test facility, located at the Koshijihara Plant of Inpex’s Nagaoka Field…
Lower-cost engineered composites for transportation infrastructure applications
Engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) are concrete-like materials with exceptional ductility (up to 500 times) and flexural strengths (2–3 times) greater than conventional concrete. The flexibility and strength of ECCs could benefit transportation infrastructure (for example, the ductility of ECCs could…
Geothermal brine may be a new U.S. source of lithium
Currently the U.S. has only one domestic source of lithium, a vital element in lithium-ion batteries and other products, but this could be changed through processes being developed by two California companies. Furthest along is a project of EnergySource Minerals…
This process may produce lithium from borate process waste
Rio Tinto (London, U.K.; www.riotinto.com) will shortly start up a pilot plant to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate from 90 years’ accumulated plant waste at its U.S. Borax operation in Boron, Calif. The waste is clay from the production of borates,…
A microbe for making chemicals and biofuels from brown algae
A research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology (Pohang, South Korea; www.postech.ac.kr), led by professor Gyoo Yeol Jung, and Seoul National University (Seoul, South Korea; www.useoul.edu), led by professor Sang Woo Seo, has developed a new microorganism —…
Solvent chemistry is key for cleaner oil-sands processing
Petroteq Energy Inc. (Sherman Oaks, Calif.; www.petroteq.energy) has achieved continuous operation at its oil-sands processing site in Utah, which is said to be the first commercial plant in the U.S. to extract and upgrade crude oil from U.S. oil sands.…