ChEnected Posts by Kent Harrington

Kent Harrington

Kent is a videographer and professional storyteller. He regularly blogs for AIChE on ChEnected. See his latest posts below. You can also follow Kent on twitter @harringtonkent.

A New Chemical Boom and Bust Cycle?

May 21, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Smart bet, or risky move? Low natural gas prices have been good for Dow Chemical, but some analysts wonder if the boom will lead to an eventual sales bust.

Methane Breakthrough Could Transform Plastics Industry

May 15, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Honeywell recently unveiled a new technology that could have far-reaching effects beyond the $150 billion plastics industry: a commercially viable one-step process to convert methane into ethylene, one of plastic's über building blocks.

OriginOil's Technology Removes 98% of Hydrocarbons in Fracking Water

May 14, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Earlier this month oil man Riggs Eckelberry was not to be found at the Houston Offshore Technology Conference. Why? He had fracking on his mind, and more precisely, a technology that promises to resolve the issue of polluted fracking water.

A Technology Miracle In The Desert: Turning Wind Into Water

May 10, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Astronaut and Chemical Engineer Blogs from International Space Station

May 07, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Dow and Bayer Create Materials For Lighter Wind Turbine Blades

May 04, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Two companies, Dow Chemical and Bayer MaterialScience, are steadily introducing new materials to give blade designers more options in the race toward 9 and 10 MW turbines.

Delta Buys Refinery to Save $300 Million a Year in Fuel Costs

May 03, 2012. By Kent Harrington

MIT's Don Sadoway Explains the Birth of His Grid-Storage Battery Startup

May 01, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Dow Bets on Low Natural Gas Prices

April 25, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Airborne Wind Turbine's Stunning Test Flights

April 24, 2012. By Kent Harrington

A new flying wind turbine by Mankani Power recently stole the show as ARPA-E showed off some of its projects. ARPA-E is the Department of Energy's investment program that invests in high-risk, potential high-gain energy projects.

Extra Optimism for Earth Day 2012

April 19, 2012. By Kent Harrington

This Sunday the world will celebrate Earth Day once again, but if thoughts of the Earth's future cause you more pessimism than hope, then the new book Abundance may be exactly what you need! According to co-writers X-Prize Founder Peter Diamandis and journalist Steven Kotler, the future looks bright, and technology's rapid growth is the reason.

Columbia University Sues Illumina over DNA Sequencing Patents

April 17, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Columbia professor Jingyue Ju, early co-inventor of the fluorescence energy transfer labeling technology that enabled the development of high-throughput DNA sequencers, finds himself in the middle of a patent protection lawsuit that will affect some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies.

Download the Universe: New Blog Reviews Science Ebooks

April 11, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Redefining Solar Cell Production with Ultra-Thin Silicon Wafers

April 06, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Twin Creek's new process for producing solar cells solves one of solar manufacturing's most severe bottlenecks. It replaces the current wasteful practice of cutting blocks of silicon with wire saws, proposing instead a highly efficient process that results in photovoltaic cells only 20 microns thick. The result is a process that reduces the amount of processed silicon by 90 percent.

Team Boosts Microbial Diesel Fuel Production

March 30, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Jay Keasling and researchers with the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have developed a new technique that boosts microbial production of renewable biodiesel fuel as much as threefold. They call this new technique a dynamic sensor-regulator system or (DSRS).

Hess Is Latest Oil Company to Jettison Refineries

March 27, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Pioneers in Air Pollution Research Win Prestigious Environmental Prize

March 26, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Two researchers, John Seinfeld, PhD, and Kirk R. Smith, MPH, PhD, whose groundbreaking work revealed the dangers of air pollution, have been awarded the 2012 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. They will also share the prize's $200,000 award.

Chevron's Huge Gorgon Project Takes Shape in Australia [VIDEO]

March 23, 2012. By Kent Harrington

Chevron's ambitious Gorgon liquified natural gas (LNG) project in western Australia is now under way and is expected to supply 10,000 jobs in Australia alone at its peak. When Gorgon finally ramps up production in 2014, it will produce 450,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Check out the video in the panel at right for an overview.

Featured Series

Interviews: 2014 Annual Meeting

BY ON November 16, 2014

Stay tuned to this series as AIChE publishes interviews with key speakers and award winners from the 2014 meeting.

The Second Phase of ChE Education

BY ON October 23, 2013

This series highlights the learning that new ChE professionals need that isn’t taught in school. They’ll describe the types of responsibilities they've had in their work to date, as well as the skills or expertise they needed or had to learn that go beyond what they learned as students. You’ll also hear from their mentor or a senior person offering their perspective on the skills or expertise that new professionals must learn.

Water Innovations

BY ON September 10, 2013

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