Last month, the so-called Hybrit initiative (www.hybritdevelopment.com) was given the go-ahead to build a pilot plant for making fossil-free steel. The announcement follows a pre-feasibility study conducted by Swedish partners SSAB AB (Stockholm; www.ssab.com), LKAB (Luleå; www.lkab.com) and Vattenfall AB…
The research group of professor Masafumi Hirando at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT; Koganei City, Japan; www.tuat.ac.jp) has performed the world’s first one-pot synthesis of conjugated polyenes, which normally require at least seven steps by conventional methods. This…
Glycolic acid Researchers from the group of professor Miho Yamauchi at the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER) of Kyushu University (Fukuoka City, Ito Campus, i2cner.kyushu-u.ac.jp) have fabricated a liquid flow-type electrolyzer that can continuously produce an alcohol from…
Last month, Genomatica (San Diego, Calif.; www.genomatica.com) and Aquafil (Trento, Italy; www.aquafil.com) announced a partnership to commercialize a Genomatica process for making caprolactam derived from renewable feedstocks, rather than from petroleum. The cyclic amide caprolactam is a key intermediate for…
In what is said to be the largest municipal wastewater application using peracetic acid (PAA) disinfectant to date, the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District in Denver, Colo. recently began disinfecting wastewater effluent with a PAA formulation from Enviro Tech Chemical Services,…
Researchers led by professor Hideo Honoso at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Yokohama City, Japan; www.titech.ac.jp) have discovered a new catalyst that enhances the efficacy of NH3 synthesis by two orders of magnitude over that of a conventional Ru catalyst at…
The large supply of unconventional natural gas from shale deposits in the U.S. has increased attention on utilizing small alkanes to synthesize higher-value chemicals and fuels, while avoiding thermal steam-cracking, which is energy-intensive. Attempts to catalytically convert methane, ethane and…
Compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries, aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs) offer significant advantages, such as non-flammability, and a high capacity of the metallic Al anode. However, due to inadequate cathodic performance, especially capacity, high-rate capability and cycle life, AlBs cannot compete with…
Plans are underway for a demonstration-scale facility in France that will convert non-food lignocellulosic biomass into raw materials for bio-based chemicals and animal feed products, such as feed for fish farming. The process, developed by Arbiom (Research Triangle Park, N.C.;…
A process technology that upgrades offgas from petroleum refineries has been commercialized by Siluria Technologies Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.; www.siluria.com) and Wood (Aberdeen, Scotland; www.woodplc.com). According to Siluria, the new Modus technology’s ability to chemically convert refinery offgases into high-quality…