In Illinois, Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) reported Q4 earnings of $424 million, or $0.73 per Share, and $0.75 per Share on an Adjusted Basis. The company noted adjusted segment operating profit up over 30 percent compared to prior fourth quarter, and said that it expected improvements across all businesses, project launches lead to […]
This past week, a group headed by former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Jim Baker proposed dramatically to introduce a $40 per ton carbon tax in order to address the rising threat from global warming. The good news is that the proposal comes at the onset of a Republican Administration and comes from former […]
By Charles Loos, PE Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Special to The Digest From an operations standpoint, a wood-fired power plant can be described as a fuel handling system first, and a power plant second. The biggest challenges stem from the fuel itself – procurement, supply, handling and combustion. By contrast, the steam turbine and power cycle […]
In the Netherlands, Avantium, AkzoNobel, Chemport Europe, RWE and Staatsbosbeheer have established a partnership for the development of a reference plant at the Chemie Park Delfzijl. The new project will be based on the Zambezi process that has been developed by Avantium. Zambezi. What’s that, exactly? Let’s explore. The Zambezi process The Zambezi process aims for a […]
If you’ve been to Hawaii, you’ve heard the greeting Aloha, and perhaps someone told you the word is used in greeting, departure, and also in expressing love. But you might not know that Aloha goes a little deeper in the old Hawaiian teaching: When food is needed I will take only my need and explain […]
In Oklahoma, the team behind the ENVIA Energy gas-to-liquids plant confirmed that the first Fischer-Tropsch product has been successfully produced at the company’s first commercial-scale plant in Oklahoma City. What makes it special is that the source is landfill gas and waste biomass. It’s been used for some times for the CNG vehicle market — […]
AkzoNobel is launching Imagine Chemistry, an exciting opportunity to partner with start-up firms, students, research groups and career scientists from across the world to jointly exploit the knowledge of chemistry and solve several real-life chemistry-related challenges. “Imagine Chemistry is just the latest example of the commitment of AkzoNobel to fostering innovation, and also to doing […]
By John Diecker, Lee Enterprises Consulting, Inc. Special to The Digest World rice production for the 2016/2017 crop year is estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture to total 481.5 million tons. The vast majority of this will come from Asia where, in addition to being a major food crop, its cultivation has strong […]
In Switzerland, Avalon Industries has launched a research project to replace formaldehyde in phenol-formaldehyde resins with a bio-based, non-toxic platform chemical 5-HMF, The R&D partner is the Institute for Materials and Wood Technology at the Bern University of Applied Sciences. The research project, ‘Development of a formaldehyde-free phenol type adhesive system for the manufacturing of […]
In Germany, a research team led by Professor Almut Arneth at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology concluded that “CO2 emissions caused by changes of land use may possibly be higher than assumed so far.” The work presented in Nature Geoscience for the first time considers processes, such as slash-and–burn agriculture or different ways of managing […]
