Safe journey for works of art

09-Dec-2009 - Valuable paintings travel long distances when they are shipped from one place to another. To minimize damage, they are packed in special picture cases. In future, these will be equipped with sensors to detect the buildup of pollutant gases, emanating from adhesives for example. After being ...

Water droplets direct self-assembly process in thin-film materials

25-Nov-2009 - You can think of it as origami – very high-tech origami. Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a technique for fabricating three-dimensional, single-crystalline silicon structures from thin films by coupling photolithography and a self-folding process driven by capillary ...

Lehigh receives grant to reduce cost of carbon capture at coal-fired power plants

Researchers look at entire system in hopes of lowering CO2 capture costs and boosting efficiency

24-Nov-2009 - Lehigh University's Energy Research Center (ERC) has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop methods of recovering and reusing the heat that would be generated by the carbon-dioxide (CO2) compression process in a carbon capture system. The goal of the research ...

ECHA calls for information to avoid unnecessary animal testing

23-Nov-2009 - The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is calling for information on the health effects of a specific chemical substance by 24 December 2009. This is a public consultation foreseen by the REACH Regulation for testing proposals involving animals. The aim of the call is to give anyone the opportunity ...

Cognis Mexico: new sulfation facility improves quality, increases capacity

18-Nov-2009 - Cognis has opened a new SO3 sulfation plant at its site in Ecatepec, Mexico. The company invested in a state-of-the-art facility, which produces ingredients for use in products such as shampoos, shower gels, paints, paper coatings, and agrochemical applications. By increasing both the plant’s ...

Accidental discovery produces durable new blue pigment for multiple applications

18-Nov-2009 - An accidental discovery in a laboratory at Oregon State University has apparently solved a quest that over thousands of years has absorbed the energies of ancient Egyptians, the Han dynasty in China, Mayan cultures and more – the creation of a near-perfect blue pigment. Through much of recorded ...

Tiny bubbles clean oil from water

New method targets oil sheen, other pollutants

17-Nov-2009 - Small amounts of oil leave a fluorescent sheen on polluted water. Oil sheen is hard to remove, even when the water is aerated with ozone or filtered through sand. Now, a University of Utah engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and ...

Energy-saving powder

13-Nov-2009 - It is currently estimated that natural gas resources will be exhausted in 130 years; however, those reserves where extraction is cost-effective will only flow for another 60 years or so. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and ...

Air Liquide: start-up of the world's largest carbon monoxide unit in Saudi Arabia

The unit designed and built by the Engineering and Construction teams of Air Liquide, will have a production capacity of 335,000 tonnes per year

11-Nov-2009 - Worldwide carbon monoxide demand is estimated to be growing at about +4% per year. In the petrochemical industry, carbon monoxide is mainly used in the production of acetic acid and polyurethane intermediates. Air Liquide has just commissioned the world’s largest carbon monoxide unit, handing it ...

Engineers image nanostructure of a solid acid catalyst and boost its catalytic activity

Researchers from Lehigh and Rice universities combine electron microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to shed new light on a tungstated zirconia catalyst

11-Nov-2009 - The catalytic processes that facilitate the production of many chemicals and fuels could become much more environmentally friendly thanks to a breakthrough achieved by researchers from Lehigh and Rice Universities. In an article published Nov. 8 by the journal Nature Chemistry, the researchers ...