products for a variety of globalindustries.

Press release from: Genencor International Inc, 200,Meridian Centre Boulevard, Rochester, NY 14618-3916, USA. Tel: +1 585 256 5200. Fax: +1 585 2566952. Website: http://www.genencor.com (28 Jun2010)

DSM announces new technology forsecond generation biofuel production

Koninklijke DSM nv is to producebiofuels from agricultural waste and,on 28 Jun 2010 at the world congressfor industrial technology inWashington, will present furtherinformation on the new technologythat it will use. The waste products,which include straw and wood chips,will be converted to ethanol usingenzymes and a specially developedstrain of yeast. This process will notimpact on food production as thestarting materials are not suitable forthis purpose.

Het Financieele Dagblad, 28 Jun 2010 (Website:http://www.fd.nl/) (in Dutch)

Biojet fuel from algae – Unitel’s newtechnology overcomes a major problemfacing the algal biofuels industry

Unitel Technologies Inc (Unitel)announced that the company has fileda patent application for a newtechnology for making biofuels frommicroalgae. The process involvesminimal dewatering, and completelybypasses the energy intensive dryingand oil extraction steps. Currently,most of the proposed methods in thebiofuels-from-algae space require theextraction of immobilized oil from algalbiomass. However, regardless of theoil extraction technique used, andsome are more efficient than others,getting to the oil is usually veryexpensive in terms of capital andenergy costs. In some instances, theamount of energy consumed toextract the oil can actually exceed theenergy value of the end product. Inthe Unitel process, the feedstock – aslurry or ‘soup’ of water and cultivatedalgae (1% to 20% by weight) iscontinuously treated in a specialhydrolysis reactor to yield 1) a fattyacid product, 2) a ‘sweet’ water streamcontaining glycerol and other solubles,and 3) de-oiled algal biomass. A smallfraction of the fatty acid product is fedback into the reactor as catalyst. The

nutrient rich ‘sweet water’ is recycledinto the algae propagation tanks,where the carbon in the glycerolserves to promote the growth ofphytoplankton. The de-oiled biomass(consisting primarily of proteins andcarbohydrates) is dried as a foodingredient for animal consumption.The algal fatty acid product iscatalytically decarboxylated andconverted into paraffinic hydrocarbons(alkanes), followed by mild hydro-cracking and hydroisomerisation tomake biojet fuel comprised of C10-C15branched paraffins.

Press release from: Unitel Technologies Inc, 411Business Center Drive 111, Mount Prospect, IL 60056,USA. Tel: +1 847 297 2265. Fax: +1 847 297 1365. E-mail: marketing@uniteltech.com. Website:http://uniteltech.com (9 Jul 2010)

ENVIRONMENTValue of recycled metals above Yen200 bn for third year

Members of the Japan CatalystRecovering Association haveregistered a Yen 216,194 M ($2.4 bn)worth of recovered rare, precious, andother metals from ‘urban mines’ in FY2009, surpassing the Yen 200 bnmark for three straight years.However, the figure was 4.8% lowerthan the FY 2008 level. For thecategory of precious metals, recoveryvolume dipped 0.6% to 394.6 tonneswith a combined value of Yen 197,792M, with the largest being silver (315.7tonnes), followed by gold (36.5tonnes) and palladium (27 tonnes).For rare metals, recovery volumedeclined 37.3% to 2041.2 tonnes. Foralumina and other metals, therecovery volume grew by 36 times to11,578 tonnes, and recovery valueincreased by around 30 times to Yen416 M. A table presents recycledmetal resources in Japan in FY 2007-2009, in kilograms (volume) and Yenmillion (value).

Japan Chemical Web, 11 Jun 2010 (Website:http://www.japanchemicalweb.jp)

PATENTSDiesel exhaust honeycomb containingzeolite

Honeycomb catalysts for dieselexhaust systems are usually based on

cordierite. This one is based onzeolite ZSM-5, containing somecordierite and other additives. Since itis fired at 850° the zeolite structure isprobably lost (Ed).

US 7,754,638, Corning Inc, Corning, New York, USA,13 Jul 2010

Oxidative desulfurization

The organic sulfides in petroleumfractions are oxidised with variousoxidants such as hydrogen peroxide,catalysed by various heteropolycompounds such as phosphomo-lybdates. Broadly similar to UOP’sMerox process, but differing from it inusing liquid-liquid extraction toremove the oxidation products.

US 7,744,749, Saudi Arabian Oil Co, Dharan, SaudiArabia, 29 Jun 2010

Aromatics from methane

This is essentially a variation on BP’sCyclar process in which methane isconverted to a mixture of aromatichydrocarbons, catalysed by a gallium-containing zeolite. This variation is forthose natural gas streams whichcontain a large proportion of carbondioxide. The hydrogen generated bythe dehydrocyclization process isreacted with this carbon dioxide by amethanation process and themethane returned to the feed.

US 7,759,535, ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc,Houston, TX, USA, 20 Jul 2010

PET process without antimony

Polyethylene terephthalate is usuallymade with an antimony catalyst, butthis is environmentally undesirable.An alternative catalyst is a titaniumdioxide sol suspended in ethyleneglycol, having specified particle sizecharacteristics.

US 7,759,270, Fuji Titanium Industry Co Ltd, Osaka-Shi, Japan, 20 Jul 2010

Preparation of a photocatalyst

The basic catalyst is the well-knownP-25 anatase titania, but its activity isincreased by depositing nano-particulate platinum on it. A platinumsol is first made by reducing achloroplatinate solution with sodiumcitrate. No protective colloid is used;the platinum sol is mixed with a

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