Foam dyeing, a new technology for dyeing cotton yarn that is being applied to denim production for the first time, eliminates the use of several chemicals and can reduce water use by up to 90% compared to traditional dyeing. The…
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…
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…
A counter-rotating propeller technology that is being developed to harness the energy from tidal currents has been field tested off the coast of Nagasaki Bay, near Iwo Jima, Japan. The prototype, which is one seventh the size of a commercial…
H2SO4 Catalyst BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has introduced a new catalyst for making sulfuric acid. The cesium-based O4-115 Quattro catalyst has a unique geometrical shape — a combination of four strands — leading to a 30% greater catalytic surface…
In boilers, silicates can volatilize with the generated steam and then form silicate glass on turbine blades, causing an imbalance. Therefore, the concentration of silicates in boiler circuits must be reduced to below 0.5 parts per million (ppm). The conventional…
A new adsorption-based technology can separate ozone from oxygen in O3-generating systems, allowing recycling of unreacted O2. In corona-discharge O3 generation, O2 molecules are split by passage through an electric field to create free oxygen atoms, which quickly combine with…
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Ga. Tech; Atlanta; www.gatech.edu) have demonstrated a precision-machining technique to manufacture an entire pumping loop from materials that can withstand temperatures as high as 1,400–1,600°C. These materials are typically thought to be too…
Polymer-electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are promising devices for clean power generation in automotive, stationary and portable applications. Up to now, the proton exchange membranes (PEMs) used in PEFCs have been based on perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomers (for example, Nafion). However,…
A new process for producing lithium titanate oxide (LTO) anode materials could lead to smaller batteries with ultrafast recharging. LTO offers a significantly higher surface area than graphite anode materials, which enables rapid electron transit and, ultimately, much faster recharging…