Chemical Engineering November 2013 - 9

Edited by Gerald Ondrey
November 2013
KIT makes 'gasoline'
for the first time
L
ast month, the synthesis stage of the bioliq
(biomass to liquid Karlsruhe) pilot
plant produced gasoline for the first time at
the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT;
Germany; www.kit.edu). The achievement
is a milestone in that all stages of the bioliq
process, which is being developed in cooperation
with Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz
GmbH (Chemnitz, Germany; www.
cac-chem-com), have been realized, thus
demonstrating the potential for making
liquid fuels from residual biomass. By mid2014,
all four stages of the process - flash
pyrolysis, high-pressure entrained-flow
gasification, syngas conditioning and synthesis
- will be linked together to make
high-quality fuel from straw.
The complete bioliq process (flowsheet)
consists of four stages. First, dry residual
biomass, which originates in a widely distributed
manner and possesses a low energy
content, undergoes a decentralized
conversion by flash pyrolysis into so-called
bioliqSynCrude - a substance of high energy
density (13-15 times higher than that
of straw) similar to crude oil - which can
be economically transported over long distances
to a centralized processing plant.
There, a high-pressure, entrained-flow gasifier
converts the bioliqSynCrude into a tarfree
synthesis gas (syngas; mainly H2 and
CO) at temperatures above 1,200°C and
pressures of up to 80 bars. Downstream hotgas
cleaning then removes impurities, such
as particulate matter, chlorine and nitrogen
compounds. In the final stage, the cleaned
syngas is fed to the synthesis reactor to produce
dimethyl ether (DME), which can be
used as, or blended with, gasoline.
Plasma-modified CNTs show promise for water purification
A
n international team of researchers claims
to have developed carbon nanotube (CNT)
membranes with an ultrahigh specific-adsorption
capacity for salt that is two orders
of magnitude higher than that found in current
activated-carbon-based water-treatment
systems. The team includes researchers from
Singapore University of Technology and Design
(www.sutd.edu.sg), CSIRO's Materials
Science and Engineering (Sydney, Australia;
www.csiro.au), Hong Kong Polytechnic University
(www.polyu.edu.hk), and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (Cambridge,
Mass.; www.mit.edu).
The team says the membranes can be integrated
into portable water purification
devices that would be rechargeable, inexpensive
and more effective than many existing
filtration methods. Such portable devices are
expected to be more cost effective than large,
existing desalination and purification plants,
which consume large amounts of energy and
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number
on p. 172, or use the website designation.
Reforming catalyst
Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby,
Denmark; www.topsoe.com)
has introduced a new alkalipromoted
steam-reforming
catalyst, dubbed RK-400.
RK-400 is engineered to protect
against unwanted carbon
formation while achieving a
higher level of catalytic activity
than those previously seen in
this class, says the company.
RK-400 has a reservoir
are labor-intensive, and therefore costly to
run. Existing small portable devices rely on
reverse osmosis (RO) and thermal processes.
They are able to remove salt ions but are unable
to filter out organic contaminants from
the briny waters of some rivers and lakes.
The team has demonstrated that the
plasma treatment of CNTs can result in ultrahigh
capacity to adsorb salt. They built
an adsorptive membrane by depositing a
thin layer of ultralong CNTs onto a porous,
mixed-cellulose-ester support. By subsequently
modifying the CNTs with plasma,
the membranes can effectively remove salt,
organics and nanoparticles simultaneously
from aqueous solutions. Since salt is adsorbed
rather than rejected, the required
operating pressure is much less than that
required for RO.
The team now plans to investigate the
filtration properties of other nanomaterials,
such as graphene.
of potassium promoter integrated
within the carrier material.
This gives the catalyst
the ability to replenish the
potassium as it is depleted,
which not only eliminates the
challenge of maintaining suffi
cient alkali at the surface,
but also allows for an initial
surface coverage of only the
essential amount of promoter
material. As a result, more
nickel surface is available for
steam reforming catalysis,
which results in an increase in
catalytic activity.
RK-400 is suitable for all
types of reformers, including
top-, bottom-, terrace wall- and
side-fi red combinations. Topfi
red operation is especially
recommended due to the high
heat fl ux at the upper part of
the tubes.
The fi rst commercial charge
of RK-400 was installed in 2012
in a North American NH3 plant.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM NOVEMBER 2013 9
http://www.kit.edu http://www.topsoe.com http://www.sutd.edu.sg http://www.csiro.au http://www.polyu.edu.hk http://www.mit.edu http://WWW.CHE.COM
Chemical Engineering November 2013

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