Chemical Engineering September 2016 - 9

Both EFB and PKS are waste products
from the production of palm oil, and
have been simply discarded in the past.
'CIRCULAR' HDPE
Last month, Total Refining & Chemicals
(Brussels, Belgium; www.totalrefiningchemicals.com),
a division of Total
S.A. (Paris, France; www.total.com),
introduced a new range of high-density
polyethylene
(HDPE)
circular compounds
with high levels of recycled
content for packaging applications.
The new product range is said to have
a performance equal to, or exceeding
that of virgin resins, says the company.
The range consists of HDPE polymer
products, in natural color, that cover
all the manufacturing needs for blowmolded
bottles and heavy-duty containers
for household and industrial
liquids with a guarantee of 25% or 50%
minimum of post-consumer recyclate
(PCR). Total's initial production capacity
of HDPE circular compounds amounts
to 20,000 ton/yr, coming fully on stream
during the course of 2017.
The recycled content of these circular
compounds originates from postconsumer
household waste collected
in Western European countries and
is recycled by selected partners. In its
Antwerp plant, Total applies a last deep
decontamination step, which transforms
the PCR into a fragrance-free
resin. Then, the PCR is compounded in
Total's plant with HDPE virgin products,
specifically designed and produced as
intermediate resins in order to overcompensate
for any lack of performance
and consistency of the PCR.
BIO GASOLINE ADDITIVES
Global Bioenergies GmbH, the German
subsidiary of Global Bioenergies (Evry,
France; www.global-bioenergies.com)
has been awarded a €400,000 grant
from the German Federal Ministry for
Research and Education (BMBF; Bonn)
for a 14-month project aimed at producing
renewable gasoline additives.
A pilot plant has been installed at the
Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological
Processes (CBP; Leuna,
Germany; www.cbp.fraunhofer.de) for
producing two gasoline additives - isooctane
and ETBE (ethyl-tert-butyl ether)
- from 100% renewable, bioethanol
and bioisobutene. In a 5,000-L fermenter,
bacteria will convert biomass-derived
sugars into isobutene. Then, using
the hydrothermal reactor units available
at CBP, the isobutene will be converted
into ETBE. Samples of the additives will
then be sent to Audi for testing. The pilot
plant is planned to start up this fall.
(Continues on p. 11)
10
Polyphenol
Lignin residue
L
ast month, the New Energy and
Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki,
Japan; www.nedo.go.jp)
signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with the National Innovation
Agency (NIA; Bangkok, Thailand; www.
nai.or.th) to work jointly on a project to
demonstrate a manufacturing system
to produce chemicals that can be converted
into raw materials for bioethanol
and high value-added products from the
fibrous waste material (bagasse) remaining
after sugarcane has been squeezed.
The project will utilize a polymer
membrane technology (diagram) developed
in Japan, and aims to achieve
Recover chemicals from sugarcane bagasse
using the half the energy
Bagasse
Alkali
Pretreatment
Hydrolysis
L/S
separation
Microfiltration
(MF)
Ultrafiltration
(UF)
Pretreated
bagasse
Enzyme
Membrane-assisted system
Recycled enzyme
Cellulosic sugar
(glucose, xylose)
Oligosaccharide
Nanofiltration/reverse
osmosis (NF/RO)
NEDO
more than 50% reduction in energy
consumption compared to conventional
distillation techniques. This is the
first attempt to apply Japan's polymer
membrane technology in the biomass
field in Thailand.
The project will demonstrate the
effectiveness of the technology in a
pilot plant that can process 5,000 ton/
yr of dried bagasse into 1,400 ton/
yr
of
cellulosic sugars (glucose/xylose),
which will produce 700,000 L/
yr of bioethanol when converted. The
project, which includes planned contractors
Toray Industries, Inc., Mitsui
Sugar Co. and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., will
run through 2022.
New process for cyclohexasilane offers lower
cost and improved safety
A
newly developed process for
manufacturing cyclohexasilane
(CHS; Si6H12) offers a lowercost
and safer pathway to a
material whose molecular architecture
allows a wider range of material possibilities
than alternative starting materials
for several important silicon-based
products. CHS can be used to make
silicon-based films (such as polysilicon,
silicon nitride, silicon carbide and others),
as well as silicon nanowires and
quantum dots. CHS also has the potential
to be used to make novel materials
for semiconductors, printable electronics
and hybrid silicon-carbon anodes
in next-generation lithium-ion batteries,
among others.
Making such materials with CHS,
rather than SiH4 or cyclopentasilane,
for example, has advantages, explains
Doug Freitag, CEO of 3DIcon Corp.
(Tulsa, Okla.; www.3dicon.net). Freitag's
company is completing a merger
with Coretec Industries LLC (Fargo,
N.D.; www.coretecindustries.com),
the licensee of the technology. One
advantage is easier transport and handling.
CHS exists as a liquid at room
temperature and while it will burn, it
will not explode similar to other silane
chemistries, Freitag explains. CHS also
has the advantage of being suitable
for liquid-, as well as vapor-deposition
processes (CHS converts to the gas
phase above 400°F), he adds, and it's
more stable and less expensive than
cyclopentasilane.
Philip Boudjouk and his research
team developed the process in his
laboratory at North Dakota State University
(Fargo, N.D.; www.ndsu.edu). In
this process, trichlorosilane is reacted
with a tertiary polyamine compound to
generate tetradecachlorocyclohexasilane
dianion. That compound is then
chemically reduced to liquid CHS.
Boudjouk has produced CHS at high
yields (60% or higher) in the laboratory
and has achieved 99.999%-pure CHS,
with higher purities expected in the future,
Freitag says. Coretec is lining up
industry partners to scale up the process
and launch the product in 2017.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
SEPTEMBER 2016
http://www.totalrefin http://www.ingchemicals.com http://www.total.com http://www.nedo.go.jp http://nai.or.th http://www.global-bioenergies.com http://www.ndsu.edu http://www.cbp.fraunhofer.de http://www.3dicon.net http://www.coretecindustries.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering September 2016

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