Latest News: Technologies
Lower-cost sulfur-removal process for syngas goes commercial
An adsorbent-based, sulfur-removal process for synthesis gas (syngas) that lowers capital and operating costs compared to alternative methods of removing sulfur has completed pre-commercial testing and has achieved commercial status. The Warm-gas Desulfurization Process (WDP; diagram) has been under development…
Startup for a demonstration plant to process three metals
Australian Mines (Perth; https//:australianmines.com.au) has started operating a demonstration three metals (cobalt-nickel-scandium) processing plant that will process ore from the company’s Sconi and Flemington projects into commercial-grade samples. The company’s flagship Sconi project, located in the mining center of Greenvale…
Chementator Briefs
RE-free magnets Tetrataenite (L10-FeNi) is a promising alternative to rare-earth- (RE) based magnets due to its favorable magnetic properties, such as a high uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and saturation magnetic-flux density. Compared to other non-RE alternatives, such as Nd-Fe-B and Sm-Fe-N,…
Catalytic advances enable methane conversion without coking
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…
Progress towards aluminum-ion batteries
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…
Biomass fractionation and conversion technology to be scaled up
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.;…
New process converts refinery offgas into gasoline
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…
Direct conversion of methane into methanol and acetic acid
In a recent paper, published in Nature, the Flytzani-Stephanopoulos group from Tufts University (Medford, Mass.; www.tufts.edu) identified a new method for the direct conversion of methane into methanol or acetic acid under mild conditions using oxygen, carbon monoxide and a…
A step closer for graphene-coated anodes
A new collaboration between PPG (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com), SiNode Systems (Chicago, Ill.; www.sinodesystems.com) and Raymor Industries (Boirsbriand, Que., Canada; www.raymor.com) aims to accelerate commercialization for battery anodes made of a silicon-graphene composite. “These materials can achieve significantly higher capacities than…
Chementator Briefs
3-D Printing At the 3-D printing tradeshow Formnext in November, GE Additive (Paris, France; www.ge.com) unveiled a laser-powder additive manufacturing machine with a 1-m3 build envelope. The machine, said to be the world’s largest laser-powder system, will be used to…