Kemira Oyj (Helsinki; www.kemira.com) has awarded Pöyry Oyj (Vantaa, both Finland; www.poyry.fi) with assignments for EPCM (engineering, procurement and construction management) services for a sodium chlorate plant in Brazil. The EPCM assignments relate to the new sodium-chlorate plant that Kemira…
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded a contract by Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen S.A. (PKN) for the license and engineering design of a new on-purpose propylene production unit to be located in Plock, Poland. The unit will use…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.mhi-global.com), working jointly with GAP Insaat Yatirim ve Dis Tiscaret A.S., a Turkish construction company and Mitsubishi Corp., will build large-scale ammonia and urea fertilizer production plants for Turkmenhimiya (TH), a state-owned chemical…
Clariant AG (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) plans to build its newest masterbatches plant in greater Sydney Area, Australia. The new plant will mainly serve the Australian market with a full range of color and additive masterbatches, technically innovative solutions and services to…
A huge growth in demand for lithium compounds is expected when automotive manufacturers start mass producing hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles using lithium-ion batteries. In anticipation of the expanded business, many minerals-processing companies have been developing technologies for processing…
Plant Watch ExxonMobil invests in new delayed coker unit at Belgium refinery July 7, 2014 — An affiliate of ExxonMobil (Irving, Tex., www.exxonmobil.com), Esso Belgium, a division of ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical B.V.B.A., plans to install a new delayed coker…
The effective removal of Cs+ ions from contaminated groundwater, seawater, and radioactive nuclear waste is crucial for public health and for the operation of nuclear power plants. Although several methods for the removal of Cs+ ions have been developed, there…
Chemists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and technology (AIST; Tsukuba City, Japan; www.aist.go.jp) have developed a procedure for making the catalysts used in catalytic converters for treating the exhaust from diesel engines. The process, developed with support…
What is said to be the world’s first fermentation pathway from methane to lactic acid has been demonstrated by Calysta, Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.; www.calysta.com). The fermentation process begins with an organism that feeds off of methane rather than typical…
The research group of Shigeki Matsunaga, associate professor at the University of Tokyo (Japan; www.f.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~kanai), in collaboration with Ken Sakata at Hoshi University, has developed a new Co-based catalyst system that outperforms the existing rhodium-based catalyst system for the production…