Process Engineering

Inks which cannot be photocopied – to confound bank-note forgers – are exciting printers of most of the world`s major currencies. A team from colour chemistry, led by Professor David Lewis and Dr Long Lin, has created an ink which changes colour when copied or scanned, to prevent forgers colour matching banknotes.

“There are already hundreds of security measures in place for banknotes,” said Professor Lewis. “But these don`t stop forgeries – some estimates put the number of forged banknotes

British consultants, Oakdene Hollins, have published a technical and commercial study of how an electrolytic production process developed at Cambridge University could transform prospects for the exploitation of rare-earth magnets. The process is already attracting development funds from the US Navy.

Rare-earth permanent magnets offer significantly improved performance characteristics over those of conventional magnets, but are more expensive. Although costs have fallen over recent years due

A new and economical technology for the separation and capture of carbon dioxide from industrial processes could lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions to the atmosphere. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing a new high-temperature polymer membrane to separate and capture carbon dioxide, preventing its escape into the atmosphere. This work is part of the DOE Carbon Sequestration Program’s mission to reduce the amount of c

An Australian research team has solved one of the world’s big industrial waste headaches – what to do with spent pot lining (SPL) from aluminium smelters.
In a major advance for sustainable mineral production, the “Alcoa Portland SPL Process” developed jointly by Portland Aluminium, Alcoa, Ausmelt and CSIRO renders the hazardous waste harmless and at the same time produces two commercial by-products.

Aluminium smelters worldwide produce about half a million tones a year of the tox

Rollo, the home robot, has been developed by the Laboratories of Automation Technology, Information and Computer Systems in Automation and Control Engineering of the Helsinki University of Technology for seven years and is presently being adapted for home care and independent living at home. Rollo is part of the “Turning Well-Being Technology into a Success Story” – (iWELL) technology programme of the National Technology Agency Tekes.

“The reason why we arrived at a ball-shaped solution was

Positioning systems will become an essential tool for the carrying out of many different tasks in the future. Whether the problem consists of a tree falling on a power line or a car standing in the road with a motor failure, aid services will find a route straight to the right location by using this system.

It has previously been difficult for a person in need of aid to convey exact information about his location in an unfamiliar area. In future, the person can find his exact location with t