Effective CO2 Capture on a Large Scale

A pilot project by Siemens and E.ON has shown that emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from power plants can be effectively captured on a large scale. At the Staudinger coal-fired power plant near Hanau, Germany, more than 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the facility’s flue gas was separated. Another result of the large-scale project, which has been running since 2009, is that the flue gas scrubbing process doesn’t reduce the plant’s efficiency to the extent that had been expected. Based on this finding, the Siemens process is also suitable for use in larger demonstration facilities.

Separation of CO2 from power plant exhaust gases is one of the ways in which plants that run on fossil fuels can help protect the climate. The CO2 is removed from the flue gas by means of Siemens’ post-combustion process. The carbon dioxide is captured with a special scrubbing agent consisting of an amino acid salt solution. These acids occur in nature and aren’t harmful to the environment. The aqueous amino acid salt solution is almost completely non-volatile, so it generates practically no solvent emissions. Unlike previous processes, the new method doesn’t require extensive cleaning of the flue gas after the carbon dioxide is captured. What’s more, the scrubbing agent removes other pollutants in the flue gas besides CO2 and can be repeatedly reused.

In addition to being very environmentally friendly, the process — which is called PostCap — is also energy efficient. Thanks to improvements to the process made by the experts at Siemens Energy, the power plant’s efficiency is only reduced by about six percentage points. That’s far less than was expected: Previous estimates had indicated a loss of about ten percentage points.

 

Probing the secrets of the ryegrasses

Loline alkaloids protect plants from attack by insects and have other interesting features that have yet to be studied in detail. Chemists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich, Germany, have developed a method for the effective synthesis of these compounds, which will facilitate further investigations in biology and medicine.

Chemists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich led by Professor Dirk Trauner have developed a concise and efficient method for the synthesis of the alkaloid loline and related compounds. Loline alkaloids are a biologically interesting group of natural products, which have unusual physicochemical and pharmacological characteristics, but are as of yet poorly understood. They are produced by fungal symbionts that infect weeds and forage grasses, and act as deterrents of insects and other herbivores. Some of the agents synthesized by endophytic fungi are toxic to grazing animals, producing a syndrome known as the staggers.

Indeed, such toxic weeds (commonly called ryegrass or cockle) were much feared in antiquity and are mentioned both by Virgil and in the New Testament. Lolines however are comparatively innocuous to mammalian herbivores, and might therefore be of some therapeutic use. The loline alkaloid temuline has attracted particular attention in another context because it can strongly bind carbon dioxide. Lolines are relatively small molecules and have a fairly simple structure, but chemical synthesis of the compounds has proven to be quite challenging.

"Our synthetic route is highly efficient and, with a maximum of 10 steps, very short," says Dirk Trauner, who led the project. "It will allow us to make these compounds in sufficient quantities to enable their various aspects to be investigated in detail. We should then be able to dissect the complex network of interactions of the plants and their fungal parasites with insects and bacteria. We now plan to use our synthetic material to identify the receptor for loline alkaloids."

Provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen

Danfoss appoints president for Danfoss India

Noel Ryan has been appointed President of Danfoss India, taking up the role on September 1st. He will be based in Chennai, India.

India is a very important market for the Danfoss Group and the Danfoss India President function has been established to support the Group’s growth and continued expansion in the country.

Noel Ryan comes from a job as Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, responsible for refrigeration sales globally and he will continue in this role alongside his new position as President of Danfoss India. Before that he was heading the global sales in Danfoss Industrial Automation, and prior to that he was based in China heading up the Asia Pacific Region. He holds a degree in chemical engineering and an MBA and has been with Danfoss since 1997.

Danfoss opened its first office in India in 1998 and has since then grown to include 350 employees of which 150 work for Sauer-Danfoss. Going forward, Danfoss has ambitious goals in India and aims to continue this expansion through increased sales, manufacturing and product development, as well as by keeping its customers in focus every step on the way.

 

Change in the Oxea management team

The global chemical company Oxea announces changes in leadership: For personal and family reasons, Neil Robertson, member of the management team of the Oxea Group and Managing Director of Oxea GmbH with responsibility for Finance, Accounting and IT, will retire at the end of 2011. This intention had already been communicated by the company last autumn.

To ensure a smooth transition, his successor Bernhard Spetsmann joined Oxea in October 2010 as a new member of the management team of the Oxea Group and as Managing Director of Oxea GmbH. Initially Spetsmann was responsible for Mergers & Acquisitions and strategic projects and has assumed increasing responsibility in the areas of Finance, Accounting and IT. He will assume complete responsibility for these areas from July 1, 2011.

As planned, Robertson will stay with Oxea until the end of the year. During this time his focus will be on strategic projects.

Before joining Oxea, Spetsmann was most recently CFO of Autobahn Tank & Rast GmbH. Prior to that he held several senior management positions at Schmalbach-Lubeca AG. Among others Spetsmann was CFO of the White Cap Division for Europe and Asia, and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions.

 

Chemist solves riddle of killer diseases

Anthrax, septicemia and meningitis are some of the planet's most deadly infections. In part because doctors lack basic insights to prevent and cure diseases caused by so called Gram-positive bacteria. Now, a chemist from the University of Copenhagen has revealed the mechanism behind these deadly infections.

By creating a synthetic version of a Gram-positive bacterial endotoxin, Danish synthetic chemist Christian Marcus Pedersen has made a contribution that'll compel immune biologists to revise their textbooks. More importantly, he has paved the first steps of the way towards new and effective types of antibiotics.

Chemist in international collaboration with biologists and physicians

The research results were attained in collaboration with Prof. Richard R. Schmidt of the University of Konstanz and biologists at the Leibniz-Zentrum für Medizin und Biowissenschaften in Borstel, Germany. Ulrich Zähringer, leader of the Center in Borstel, is thrilled with Pedersen's achievement.

"No one knew what substance Gram-positive bacteria released to make us sick. But because Pedersen can supply us with substances that are entirely pure, and have a known structure and composition, we are able to get a more precise answer as to why we show symptoms when these bacteria enter our body," explains Professor Zähringer.

Synthesis succeeds where biologists gave up

Lipoteichoic acid, is a substance created and present in the cell wall of Gram positive bacteria. It appears to be the culprit of stimulating immune response symptoms such as fever, inflammation and organ failure. Indeed, when exploring illness, it is critical to investigate the substances that bind themselves to healthy human cells and thus, the cell wall becomes an important place to look. But if the substance breaks down as soon as it comes under the microscope, the chances of studying its binding abilities are not very great. Therefore, it was a major breakthrough when Pedersen was able to fabricate the molecule from scratch.

"Biologists have been trying to isolate this poison from living organisms for years. But the substance has a number of active groups. That is to say, the spiked parts of the molecule which enable the entire molecule to bind to cells. This makes it extremely difficult to purify. And dirty molecules are not conducive to viable research. Therefore, it's a great advantage to fabricate the substance synthetically, because we can "build" a molecule in which everything is included... Or where we ourselves decide which part of the structure to leave out," says Christian Marcus Pedersen.

Tiresome task but outstanding results

Lipoteichoic acid consists of 335 atoms combined in tangle, the complexity of which has made it difficult to collect. To create pure and intact molecules, Pedersen needed to complete 88 so-called synthesis steps. That is to say that 88 distinct "recipes", all of which needed to function, were required in order to reach the final result. These synthetic biomolecules are a fantastic tool for biologists in the investigation of Gram-positive bacteria's attack mechanisms.

"When it comes to these bacteria, there is still no one who knows precisely what on the bacteria activates the immune system. But we can build the precise parts of the structure that we want to. And biologists can examine how what we have built reacts with the immune system," says Pedersen.

Provided by University of Copenhagen