Chemical Engineering December 2022 - 10

gas shift or dry reforming of methane),
according to the publication. The DFMs
were shown to reversibly adsorb CO2 at
temperatures berween 350 and 650°C,
and can be regenerated by purging with
an inert gas. The proof-of-concept is said
to be a milestone in the development of
carbon-negative technologies.
SMART SENSOR
Researchers at the King Abdullah University
of Science and Technology (KAUST;
Thuwal, Saudi Arabia; www.kaust.edu.
sa) have developed a chemical sensor
that, combined with artificial intelligence
(AI) and machine learning (ML), can be
trained to detect gases in air with high
selectivity and sensitivity. Instead of using
exotic materials or special coatings, the
sensor uses a heated strip of silicon,
called a microbeam resonator. When bent
near the buckling point and clamped at
both ends, this microbeam resonates at
a frequency that is very sensitive to temperature.
The heated microbeam is thus
responsive to gases with different thermal
conductivities. Shifts in resonance
frequencies are detected using a microsystem
vibrometer analyzer. AI is used
to analyze data to identify characteristic
frequency changes of various gases, and
data processing and ML algorithms are
used to generate markers for each gas.
Once trained, the sensor can identify specific
gases with 100% accuracy.
SILOXANE PRODUCTION
In late October, Wacker Chemie AG
(Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com)
bestowed its 2022 Net Zero Award to a
project team comprising Martin Steuer
from the methyl chloride synthesis/hydrolysis
plant at the Nünchritz site, Sebastian
Kröner from Process Development at
Central Engineering in Burghausen and
Konrad Mautner from Wacker Silicones
Technology Management. The internal
prize was established last year to honor
projects implementing Wacker Group's
sustainability goals. The company aims
to reduce its absolute greenhouse-gas
emissions by 50% by 2030 and become
climate-neutral by 2045.
The winners developed a process with
which a high percentage of organosilicon
byproducts from hydrolysis of chlorosilanes
is returned into the integrated
production system in a targeted manner.
The hydrolysis of chlorosilane is part of
the upstream process, which starts out
from metallurgical silicon to produce the
intermediates chlorosilane and siloxane
and ultimately to obtain the downstream
product silicone.
The award-winning process is already
in use on an industrial scale at the Nünchritz
site and is to be implemented at the
Burghausen site in the coming years. ❐
10
Quantitative microbial monitoring for
corrosion-relevant organisms
L
uminUltra Technologies Ltd.
(Fredericton, N.B., Canada;
www.luminultra.com) recently
launched a suite of DNAbased
monitoring tools specifically
designed to address organisms
linked to microbiologically influenced
corrosion (MIC). The collection enables
industrial users to collect, prepare
and test samples for a range of
MIC targets, yielding quantifiable and
actionable results, comments Jordan
Schmidt, director of product applications
at LuminUltra.
MIC, referring to corrosion that is induced
or accelerated by the activity of
microorganisms, has been a costly and
persistent challenge for metal surfaces
in the chemical processing, oil-andgas
and power generation sectors,
among others. The test kits monitor for
the presence and amount of specific
microbes by purifying and amplifying
DNA segments unique to those organisms
using quantitative polymerase
chain reaction (qPCR) methods.
LuminUltra's molecular biology tools
yield results in as little as two hours,
compared to the weeks required by
traditional testing methods, and are
designed for testing at user facilities,
the company says.
The LuminUltra qPCR assay kits
target a number of MIC microbes, including
sulfate-reducing prokaryotes,
iron-reducing bacteria, total methanogens,
corrosive methanogens
(micH), sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and
more. The company's product suite
also includes auto-extraction equipment
and sample preservation and
purification kits.
" The ability to analyze microbial
communities and diagnose corrosion
on asset surfaces is a valuable capability
for facilities across the chemical
process industries, " says Schmidt,
" and the initial feedback resulting from
this new MIC-specific
offering has
been tremendous. "
A direct, biocatalytic route from
CO2 to ethylene
anzaTech Inc. (Chicago, Ill.;
www.lanzatech.com) has developed
a genetically engineered
bacterium capable of
converting carbon dioxide directly to
ethylene, the most widely used chemical
building block globally. The company
has incorporated the engineered
biocatalyst into a continuous process
in a benchtop bioreactor.
The development could have broad
implications for global carbon reduction
and CO2 utilization. " This process could
allow large reductions in the need for
ethylene derived from petroleum, " says
Michael Köpke, vice president for synthetic
biology at LanzaTech. " We envision
a cost-efficient process for ethylene
production that is carbon-negative
and is also able to take advantage of
existing downstream infrastructure for
ethylene derivatives. "
The CO2-to-ethylene direct route
is built on LanzaTech's existing gasfermentation
platform, which has previously
demonstrated the production
of ethanol from CO2. In that case, the
ethanol can be catalytically dehydrated
to ethylene in a separate process step.
" The ability to convert CO2 directly
to ethylene in a 'gas-to-gas' process
L
improves overall costs and carbon efficiency
of the project, " Köpke notes.
Using LanzaTech's genetic toolbox
for gas-fermentation organisms, the
company engineered a proprietary
bacterial strain capable of expressing a
set of genes that encodes an enzyme
cascade for the transformation of CO2
to ethylene. The process does require
a source of hydrogen, Köpke says, but
the microbes are tolerant of a host of
contaminants, so the CO2 purity of the
feed gas can vary quite widely.
" Synthetic biology tools were critical
for reprogramming the organisms
to produce the desired products, as
well as for controlling genetic expression
and screening microbial strains, "
Köpke states.
LanzaTech is now working to optimize
the CO2-to-ethylene direct process in
preparation for moving the process to
pilot scale.
LanzaTech is already a leader in
the scale-up and commercialization
of gas-conversion biotechnology. It
was the winner of the 2019 Kirkpatrick
Chemical Engineering Achievement
Award for its gas-fermentation
technology (see Chem. Eng. January
2020, pp. 23-26).
n
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
DECEMBER 2022
http://www.luminultra.com http://www.kaust.edu.sa http://www.kaust.edu.sa http://www.lanzatech.com http://www.wacker.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2022
