Agrana is converting boilers in sugar and starch factories to run on fuel oil as a contingency against the supply failure of Russian natural gas, according to local press reports.
Ionic liquid intermediate produced from lignin [Full subscriber]
Researchers at US Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab have transformed lignin into a precursor for a useful chemical with a wide range of potential applications.
Researchers convert CO2 into multi-carbon fuels [Registered]
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology discovered a new way to produce carbon-based liquid fuels from CO2.
UV light-driven catalyst converts CO2 into fuel and feedstock [Registered]
One of the problems with carbon dioxide is the strength of the carbon-oxygen bond. It is very difficult to break its bonds and free up the carbon for reactive chemistry. CO2 activation – the process of persuading oxygen-bound carbon to react – has therefore been a goal of chemistry for some years. A potential breakthrough has now come from researchers at Duke University in North Carolina, USA, who have engineered nanoparticles containing the precious metal rhodium that convert CO2 into methane via UV light. The methane could be used directly as a fuel or as a feedstock for reaction into further organic molecules.
USA – Bagasse-based xylose production plant nears completion [Registered]
A US$60 million demonstration plant converting cane bagasse into xylose is nearing completion and will be ready to open in early autumn in Raceland, Louisiana according to plant manager Carey Buckles.
Novel catalyst used to produce aromatic chemicals from lignin [Registered]
Using these new catalysts, arenols (phenol derivatives) were successfully deoxygenated to afford the corresponding arenes. In addition, aryl methyl ethers were converted selectively to arenols after demethylation with dihydrogen using the same catalysts.
Bioengineered bacteria helps produce isopropanol from solar energy [Registered]
They have created a system that uses bacteria (Ralstonia eutropha) to convert solar energy into a liquid fuel. Their work integrates an “artificial leaf,” which uses a catalyst to make sunlight split water into hydrogen and oxygen, with a bacterium engineered to convert carbon dioxide plus hydrogen into the liquid fuel isopropanol.
Monthly Snapshot
Raw sugar for March delivery settled at 19.82 cents/pound on January 18 after reaching a two-and-a-half-week high earlier in the session at 20.25 cents. The white sugar contract expiring in […]
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