Chemical Engineering May 2021 - 6

by Business Finland. A
biopolymer plant will be
built in Uusikaupunki, Finland,
in which bioplastic
production will be piloted
on an industrial scale. The
new plant is to be operating
by the end of 2023.
The four partners have
jointly explored the possibilities
of using soy molasses
- a side stream
of soy processing - as
a raw material of the future.
" The process developed
as an outcome of
this cooperation project
is the first in the world
to produce an ecological
lactic-acid polymer
from the side streams
of soy production, " says
Henri Nieminen, CEO of
Finnfoam. " This way, we
can offer a sustainable
alternative to sugar- and
corn-based polylactic
acid (PLA), " he says.
Soy molasses, which
is not suitable for food,
has previously been disposed
of by incineration.
Producing bioplastic from
this residue of soy processing
has huge potential
as a scalable export
product
in
the
circular
economy. Globally, residues
from soy production
could produce around 22
million metric tons (m.t.)
of bioplastic per year.
GREEN AMMONIA
Last month, Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries, Ltd.
(MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.
mhi.com) announced that
it has invested in Starfire
Energy Inc. (Denver, Colo.;
www.starfireenergy.com),
a developer of modular
chemical plants for the
production of green NH3
and H2 using a patented
catalyst technology. The
partnership will be used
to advance the development
of commercial-scale
applications to decarbonize
NH3 production and
unlock its potential as a
zero-carbon energy carrier.
The investment has
been executed through
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
America, Inc., joining
a consortium of investors,
(Continues on p. 7)
6
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM MAY 2021
Compressing hydrogen electrochemically
K
aji Technology Corp. (Osaka; www.kajitech.com)
and Toray Industries, Inc.
(Tokyo, both Japan; www.toray.com)
have jointly completed developing and
demonstrating an electrochemical hydrogen
pump system earlier this year. This effort was
part of a project, funded by the New Energy
and Industrial Technology Development Organization
(NEDO; Kawasaki, Japan), aimed at
reducing the costs of H2-refueling stations.
The electrochemical hydrogen pump system,
including a polymer electrolyte membrane
(PEM) stack (diagram), compresses H2 using
renewable energy to perform the oxidation-reduction
reactions. H2 is supplied to the anode
side of the catalyst-coated membrane (CCM),
where a Pt-alloy catalyst splits the molecule
into protons. The electrons are transferred via
an external circuit to a catalyst layer on the
other side of the PEM, where the protons recombine
as H2 on the cathode side.
Kaji Technology and Toray are targeting the
commercialization of a system that produces
4.1 Nm3/h of H2 at 40 MPa pressure. Toray is
in charge of developing the PEM and stack.
Kaji Technology developed the combined
package of electrochemical H2 pump system
with the stack.
A 19.6-MPa electrochemical H2 pump
system supplied by HyET Hydrogen B.V.
(Arnhem, the Netherlands; www.www.
hyethydrogen.com) was installed by Kaji TechT
ypically,
to achieve the high graphite
purity levels demanded by lithium-ion
battery (LIB) applications, processors
depend on hydrofluoric acid to remove
eH2
CCM
Electrolyte
membrane
eCompressed
H2
Catalyst Catalyst
Stack principle
Electrode
Toray Industries
nology at the electric-power storage technology
research site that the Yamanashi prefectural
government runs in Komekurayama,
Kofu City. Demonstration testing at the site
used the pump system to compress " green
hydrogen " produced by solar energy with a
25-kW PEM-type electrolyzer from Toray. That
setup was the fruit of another NEDO-funded
project. This was the first demonstration of a
continuous PEM type electrolyzer and PEM
type hydrogen pump system in Japan.
Compared to a conventional mechanical
H2 compressor, the electrochemical system
is more compact, vibration- and noise-free.
The two companies are working to commercialize
systems running at higher capacities
and pressures.
Recovering battery-grade graphite, without using HF
EcoGraf's process was designed as a more
silica impurities. Now, a new graphite-purification
technology that eliminates the use of
highly corrosive and toxic HF is being scaled
up for battery-recycling applications.
Developed by EcoGraf Ltd. (West, Perth,
Australia; www.ecograf.com.au), the proprietary
process not only produces high-purity
graphite from mineral resources, but it also
enables the recovery of high-grade graphite
from end-of-life battery scrap materials. Currently,
most battery-recycling processes only
focus on the recovery of cathode materials,
such as nickel and cobalt, leaving behind reusable
graphite anode material. Battery recycler
SungEel HiTech Ltd. (Gunsan, South
Korea; www.sungeel.com) will employ the
EcoGraf process to recover graphite anode
materials, alongside its own hydrometallurgical
technologies for recovering cathode materials,
in two proposed recycling plants to be
located in Europe and South Korea.
environmentally friendly alternative to the HFbased
graphite-purification method, explains
Andrew Spinks, EcoGraf managing director.
Pilot-scale programs have been completed
in Germany and Australia, and Spinks anticipates
that the company's production base will
be expanded to include additional facilities in
Europe, as well as North America. EcoGraf is
currently working on a 20,000-ton/yr graphite-manufacturing
facility in Western Australia
and has announced plans to build a similar
plant in Europe. The multi-stage chemical process
involves washing and filtering steps that
eliminate the use of HF, and has been successfully
applied for recovering graphite with
over 99% purity from both production scrap
(carbon-based waste material generated during
anode manufacturing) and black mass
(leftover carbon material that remains once
cathode metals have been recycled from endof-life
LIBs). Notably, the graphite recovered
from EcoGraf's process retains its spherical
particle shape, making it readily reusable in
battery applications.
Low-pressure
hydrogen electrode
High-pressure
hydrogen electrode
http://www.ka http://www.jitech.com http://www.toray.com http://www.www http://www.hyethydrogen.com http://www.mhi.com http://www.starfireenergy.com http://www.ecograf.com.au http://www.sungeel.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering May 2021
