In The News
SNC-Lavalin awarded contract for MEG Energy’s Christina Lake project
SNC-Lavalin Inc. (Montreal, Quebec, Canada; www.snclavalin.com) has been awarded a contract by MEG Energy to complete the detailed engineering and provide procurement services for Phase 3A of the Christina Lake Regional Project steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) central processing facility in…
Jacobs receives contract from Nexen Energy
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) has received a three-year contract from Nexen Energy ULC for engineering and procurement services for the Long Lake oil-sands facility. Long Lake is an integrated steam-assisted, gravity-drainage (SAGD) and upgrading operation that uses…
Dow and Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies License LP Oxo Technology to PetroChina
Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies (JM Davy; London, U.K. www.davyprotech.com) and The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) announced that PetroChina Guangdong Petrochemical Co., a subsidiary of PetroChina Company Ltd. (PetroChina), China's largest oil-and-gas producer and distributor, has selected LP Oxo…
Rive Technology raises $20 million in Series D Financing
Rive Technology (Princeton, N.J.; www.rivetechnology.com), a provider of innovative materials-based solutions for catalytic and separations processes in the petroleum refining, chemicals, water and biofuels industries, today announced the closing of a $20 million round of financing from leading energy investors.…
Messer continues to grow in China
Messer (Bad Soden/Frankfurt, Germany; www.messergroup.com), the largest owner-managed industrial gas specialist worldwide, continues to drive its development in China. In the Paojiang industrial zone located in Shaoxing in Zhejiang province, the company is building a new air separation plant to…
This FCC process shown to enhance olefins production
JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (JX_NOE; Tokyo, Japan; www.noe.jx-group.co.jp) has demonstrated enhanced propylene and butenes yields by its high-severity, fluid-catalytic cracking (HS-FCC) technology. In a 3,000-bbl/d semi-commercial plant, which has been operating at the company’s Mizushima Refinery since May…
Reduce air consumption from AODD pumps with this technology
New technology developed for air-operated, double-diaphragm (AODD) pumps can reduce consumption of compressed air by up to 60% without electronic components, while maintaining the same flowrates. The reduced air consumption translates directly to lower energy usage. Developed by Wilden Pump…
Modified PU foam shows promise as sponge for soaking up oil spills
Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing; www.cas.ac.cn) have found a way to transform polyurethane (PU) foam into a sponge that is strongly water-repellent and oil-absorbing, making it suitable for soaking up chemicals and petroleum from spills. One of…
Inorganic membranes show promise to halve energy consumption in distillation
Japanese researchers from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki City; www.nedo.go.jp), Waseda University, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (JX_NOE) and five other companies along with five more universities have developed an inorganic membrane that enables…
Bio-Based Chemicals Gain Market Acceptance
As an industry sector, bio-based chemicals have seen significant expansion over the past year, with several commercial developments occurring in a group of four-carbon commodity chemicals, including succinic acid, butanols, butadiene and butanediol. While a host of technology-based companies have…