Page 156 - CW E-Magazine (31-12-2024)

News from Abroad

PILOT FACILITY PLANNED
Toray looks to scale up all-carbon CO separation
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membrane

Japanese advanced materials firm,
Toray Industries, is installing a pilot
facility for its all-carbon carbon dioxide
(CO ) separation membrane at its
2
Shiga plant in Japan.

The facility, to be operational in
April next year, will be used to estab-
lish mass production technology for
CO separation membranes.
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Toray said it will collaborate with
biogas and natural gas production deve- biomass, which is a mixture of methane strated CO separation from biogas and
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lopers, related engineering manu- and CO , and from waste gases con- exhaust gas emissions at its Tokai plant,
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facturers, and other external partners taining nitrogen and CO , using these maintaining consistent CO separation
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to validate the results, with a view to technologies for carbon capture & stor- performance for a full week.
putting CO separation membrane ele- age and carbon capture & utilisation.
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ments to practical use in the following This demonstration confirmed the
fiscal year. Toray said its research laboratories technology’s applicability for separat-
have confirmed the high separation per- ing methane and nitrogen from CO .
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CO emissions from natural gas are formance and durability of its all-car- Additionally, the biogas used at the
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relatively low when burned, so its use as bon CO separation membrane in gas Tokai plant during the demonstration
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a stable energy source should continue environments containing impurities. contained more than 1,000 parts per
to grow. In recent years, an emphasis million of aromatic hydrocarbons
on developing gas fields with low CO The company has refined its hollow alongside CO , for a composition
2
2
concentrations has heightened demand fibre spinning and thin-layer coating similar to that of natural gas.
for more efficient CO separation and technologies, establishing a film pro-
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recovery technology in view of a need duction process capable of producing “The technology should find
to exploit gas fields with higher residual consistently stable membranes. Simul- wide-ranging applications, not only in
CO concentrations. taneously, it developed core technology biogas but also in natural gas produc-
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for manufacturing membrane elements tion and in enhancing the efficiency
It will be vital to develop techno- that bundle CO separation membranes. of CO separation for CCS and CCU,
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logies that can efficiently separate and Using small membrane elements it crea- where CO separation is essential,” the
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recover CO from biogas derived from ted, the company successfully demon- company said.
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NEXT-GENE BIOLOGY PORTFOLIO
Merck’s MilliporeSigma buying Dutch organoid
specialist
MilliporeSigma, the US and Canada adult stem cell-derived organoids. They have the potential to speed up
life science business of German Terms of the deal were not disclosed. drug development, improve under-
conglomerate, Merck, has agreed to standing of disease treatment in diverse
acquire HUB Organoids Holding BV, Organoids are cell culture models populations, and reduce the indus-
a Dutch firm operating in the field of that functionally resemble an organ. try’s reliance on animal testing. “For

156 Chemical Weekly December 31, 2024

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