Recycling vehicle tires is complicated because the rubbers used (including butadiene and polyisoprene) are highly cross-linked, and because pyrolysis-based recycling of the rubbers generates environmentally hazardous compounds like benzene and dioxins. Now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at…
Plant Watch Cariflex opens $355-million latex plant in Singapore May 15, 2025 — Cariflex Pte. Ltd. (Singapore; www.cariflex.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of DL Chemical Co., Ltd. (DL Chemical), inaugurated its new polyisoprene latex plant at Jurong Island, Singapore. With…
The ability to economically produce large scales of graphene will help to enable many high-performance applications, from smart packaging materials and medical devices to safer gas storage. A new process demonstrated at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI; San Antonio, Tex.; www.swri.org)…
A proprietary molten-salt electrolysis (MSE) process originally designed for battery manufacturing has now been re-optimized for North America’s first operational cobalt-refining plant. The DirectPlateTM MSE technology developed by Xerion Advanced Battery Corp. (Kettering, Ohio; www.xerionbattery.com; see Direct molten-salt electroplating cuts…
Biogas — produced from anaerobic digestion of organic matter — contains a mixture of gases, with methane and carbon dioxide as the predominant components. To use biogas as a fuel source, purification of the gas is typically needed to remove…
Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, Calif. www.lbl.gov), along with a host of collaborators, have made progress on an artificial photosynthesis system that converts CO2 into ethane and ethylene using nanostructured copper and perovskite. In a recent publication…
New mixing solutions lead to higher yields, while minimizing energy consumption and material waste Usually engineered for a specific application in the chemical process industries (CPI), mixing solutions have the potential to enhance the efficiency of any process, leading to…
This pump packing has a modular design The AMPS (Advanced Modular Packing System; photo) is a pump packing system designed to offer superior sealing efficiency and significantly reduce leakage and downtime while extending equipment life. It has a focus on…
In adsorption processes using steam to regenerate activated carbon, the carbon’s physical characteristics can greatly impact efficiency and optimization Processes using activated carbon as an adsorbent (Figure 1) can be ideal candidates for regeneration using hot fluids like CO2, CH4,…
In a recent data release, the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) said global chemical production rose in April, while U.S. chemical production fell. ACC said, "Following a 0.7% gain in March, ACC’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global…