Turning dirty tinfoil into biofuel catalyst

A researcher at Queen’s University Belfast has discovered a way to convert dirty aluminium foil into a biofuel catalyst, which could help to solve global waste and energy problems.

In the UK, around 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging is wasted each year - enough to stretch to the moon and back. Most of this is landfilled or incinerated as it’s usually contaminated by grease and oils, which can damage recycling equipment.

Innovative

However, Ahmed Osman, an early career researcher from Queen’s University’s school of chemistry and chemical engineering, has worked with engineers at the university to create an innovative crystallisation method, which obtains 100 percent pure single crystals of aluminium salts from the contaminated foil. This is the starting material for the preparation of alumina catalyst.

Usually, to produce this type of alumina it would have to come from bauxite ore, which is mined in countries such as West Africa, the West Indies and Australia, causing huge environmental damage.

Promising

Osman, who took on the project under the University’s Sustainable Energy, Pioneering Research Programme, has created a solution which is much more environmentally-friendly, effective and cheaper than the commercial catalyst which is currently available on the market for the production of dimethyl ether - a biofuel which is regarded as the most promising of the 21st century.

Read more: Turning dirty tinfoil into biofuel catalyst

Archroma launches new food compliant dye, extends Cartasol range

Archroma has extended its Cartasol range by introducing a new, improved bright yellow dye called Cartasol Yellow 6GFC liq, that has no added diethanolamine (DEA) or triethanolamine (TEA or TAN).

Archroma’s new, food-compliant yellow formulation is butyldiglycol free, and will completely replace its existing Cartasol Yellow 6GFN liquid product by the end of this calendar year.

The company’s continuing active dye-reformulation program has led to the latest launch of Cartasol Yellow 6GFC liq. The new dye has been designed to have the same strength, shade and properties as its predecessor, but with the added advantage of being fully compliant with the food contact requirements. In addition, the new grades are REACH-compliant and fulfil the requirements of most major eco-labels.

Read more: Archroma launches new food compliant dye, extends Cartasol range

BASF to sell Austria paper coating plant for €30 million

BASF SE has signed a contract with Synthomer Austria GmbH, a subsidiary Synthomer plc, for the sale of its production site for styrene butadiene dispersions for paper coating in Pischelsdorf, Austria, for a purchase price of €30 million.

The buyer will take over 42 employees at the site. The transaction is expected to be completed by late January 2018.

BASF also said that it will concentrate on production of paper coating dispersions in Europe at two sites, the Ludwigshafen Verbund site and the Hamina site in Finland.  The goal is to strengthen BASF’s ability to compete in the challenging market environment of paper coating dispersions in the long term.

In future, BASF will supply customers for styrene butadiene dispersions in Europe from existing production capacities at the sites in Ludwigshafen and Hamina. Furthermore, paper dispersion production will continue without changes in the other BASF production sites for paper coating dispersions in the EMEA region, i.e. Gebze, Turkey and Durban, South Africa.

Paper dispersions are applied to paper together with other additives and pigments to improve such properties as the print quality of graphic paper as well as packaging paper and cardboard.

Read more: BASF to sell Austria paper coating plant for €30 million

Praxair stakeholders approve merger with Linde

Praxair Inc shareholders have approved the merger of equals with Linde AG.

This approval represents the achievement of an essential condition for the transaction to close. Other conditions to closing include the obtaining of antitrust approvals and the fulfilment of regulatory requirements. Praxair and Linde expect the merger to be completed in the second half of 2018.

Praxair stakeholders approve merger with Linde

ExxonMobil increases acreage position in Permian Basin

ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) has added 22,000 acres to its Permian Basin portfolio since May through a series of acquisitions and acreage trades. Located in the highly prolific, stacked oil pay zones of the Delaware and Midland Basins, the new acreage adds to the company’s existing 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent Permian Basin resource base.

The recent transactions represent important additions to ExxonMobil’s established core positions in the Delaware and Midland Basins. In February, ExxonMobil acquired 250,000 acres in the Delaware Basin from companies owned by the Bass family of Fort Worth. In the Midland Basin, the company has doubled its core operated acreage to more than 130,000 acres through multiple transactions over the last few years.

Read more: ExxonMobil increases acreage position in Permian Basin

Fluor bags support services contract by US Navy

Fluor Corporation (FLR) has been awarded a base operating support services contract by US Navy.

The award is an eight-year cost-plus-award-fee contract to include the base period, four option periods, three award option periods and a six-month services extension valued at approximately $495 million.

The contract was awarded through the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Fluor will provide comprehensive support services in various locations on the island including management and administration, port operations, ordnance, material and facility management, facility investment and general base support.

Read more: Fluor bags support services contract by US Navy

AkzoNobel paint production in Netherlands powered by green energy

AkzoNobel NV said that all of its paint and coatings production in the Netherlands is now powered by green energy, marking another milestone on the company’s journey to becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

An agreement has been signed with energy company Eneco which means the company’s facilities in Sassenheim, Wapenveld, Groot Ammers and Ammerzoden are now entirely using electricity generated by wind power.

The contract – which runs until 2020 and includes providing power to all the company’s Sikkens stores – involves the supply of 66 GWh a year, equivalent to the energy consumed by a city with 33,000 inhabitants. AkzoNobel will also reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 19 kilotons.

The Eneco contract follows two agreements announced by AkzoNobel last year which involve purchasing wind energy (together with Google, DSM and Philips) directly from new wind farms currently under construction in the Netherlands – Krammer and Bouwdokken. The company also uses sustainably generated steam at its sites in Hengelo and Delfzijl.

Currently, 40 percent of AkzoNobel’s worldwide energy consumption is renewable, while 2016 saw nearly half the company’s locations improve their energy use. The aim for 2050 is to use 100 percent renewable energy.

Read more: AkzoNobel paint production in Netherlands powered by green energy