In The News
Neste Oil & ADNOC partnership in VHVI-base oils
Neste Oil Corp. (Keilaranta, Finland; www. www.nesteoil.com) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; www.adnoc.ae) have entered into a partnership concerning VHVI (very high viscosity index) base oils. Along with the cooperation, 600,000 metric tons…
Neste Oil: Waste for renewable-diesel production
Neste Oil Corp. (Keilaranta, Finland; www. www.nesteoil.com) is to increase its use of waste as a raw material for producing NExBTL renewable diesel in 2011. Palm oil will continue to be the single largest raw material input, and is expected…
Solvay to double Solef PVDF production capacity
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has decided to increase its Solef production capacity by 50% to keep track of the continuously strong growing demand for this high added-value fluorinated specialty polymer. The capacity increase at Solvay's Tavaux plant, France, requires…
BASF: New plant for sodium methylate
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) intends to build an additional production plant for sodium methylate in South America. Argentina is the planned location for the second plant with an annual capacity of about 60,000 metric tons. Thus, BASF wants to…
Outotec: Effluent-treatment plant for Codelco
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has signed a contract with the main copper producer in the world, Chilean Codelco for the design and delivery of an effluent treatment plant for Codelco's new Mina Ministro Hales project close to Calama, Chile.…
ThyssenKrupp: Smart energy-efficiency program has saved around €45 million since 2009
Last year ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG (Duisburg, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-steel-europe.com) launched a new energy efficiency program to further reduce energy costs at all its production locations. The results of the saving measures are impressive. The potential identified so far at the…
Black & Veatch: Three new LNG projects in China
China Natural Gas Co. (CNGC; Beijing, China) has selected Black & Veatch (Overland Park, Kan.; www.bv.com) and Chemtex to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for three new liquefied natural gas plants in China. The new facilities will feature Black…
CB&I: FEED contract for Sohar Refinery in Oman
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded a contract valued in excess of $40 million by the Oman Refineries and Petrochemical Co. for the front end engineering and design (FEED) and project management services for the Sohar Refinery Expansion…
GE completes $3-billion acquisition of Dresser, Inc. and more business news
Genzyme to build additional biologics manufacturing plant in Belgium January 22, 2011 — Genzyme Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.genzyme.com) plans to build an additional manufacturing plant in Geel, Belgium, to support the longterm growth of Alglucosidase alfa, known as Lumizyme in…
Graphene improves the performance of water deionization
A research team from the University of South Australia (Adelaide; www.unisa.edu.au) and the East China Normal University (Shanghai; www.ecnu.edu.cn) has developed a capacitive deionization technology (CDI) that uses graphene-like nanoflakes as electrodes, instead of conventionally used activated carbon (AC) materials.…