In The News
Borouge: $2.6-billion contracts for Borouge 3
Borouge (Abu Dhabi, UAE; wwwborouge.com), a joint-venture (JV) between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis (Vienna, Austria; www borealisgroup.com), formally signed three major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts valued at approximately $2.6 billion for its Borouge 3…
Waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol demonstration
CleanTech Biofuels, Inc. (St. Louis, Mo.; www.cleantechbiofuels.net), an early stage provider of cellulosic biomass feedstock derived from municipal solid waste (MSW) for energy and bio-based chemical production, announced an agreement with Fiberight LLC. (Catonsville, Md.; www. fiberight.com), to install its…
This compact wastewater-treatment system reduces sludge volumes and recovers biogas
The Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI, www.itri.org.tw) is conducting a 10-m3/d pilot-plant project to test the performance of its A2O membrane system for municipal wastewater treatment. The project, which is nearing completion, has already supplied important data, including capital…
A hydrogen generator featuring longer-lasting electrodes
This Fall, Vantec Co. (Tochigi Prefecture, Japan; www.vantec-jp.com) plans to commercialize a water electrolyzer that incorporates electrodes with a ten-year lifetime — nearly twice that of conventional technology, says the manufacturer. The long-lasting electrodes are expected to reduce the cost…
Japanese JV to recycle steel-mill dust
Nippon Steel Corp. (Tokyo; www.nsc.co.jp) and Kobe Steel, Ltd. (Kobe, Japan; www.kobelco.com) plan to begin construction of a plant to recycle steel-mill dust — a byproduct from the steelmaking process — into direct reduced iron (DRI). The two companies will…
A new catalyst for the direct hydrogenolysis of glycerin into PDO
Professor Keiichi Tomishige and colleagues at Tohoku University (Sendai City, Japan; www.che.tohoku.ac.jp/~erec/) have developed a high-performance catalyst for synthesizing 1,3-propanediol (PDO) — a raw material for highly functional poly(trimethyleneteraphthalate) (PPT) fibers — from glycerin as starting material. The catalyst —…
Lanxess expands Mesamoll production in Uerdingen
Specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is expanding the capacity for its premium products in the Mesamoll range, amid growing demand for these phthalate-free plasticizers. A mid-single-digit amount in million euros is being invested in expanding production facilities…
Novel gasifier uses liquid copper as the heat source
Liquid copper is employed to gasify wastes in a process being developed by Ze-gen (Boston, Mass.; www.ze-gen.com) and will be tested in a small commercial plant in an industrial park in Attleboro, Mass. Scheduled for completion late next year, the…
KBR and SK Energy form JV
KBR, Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) and SK Energy Co. (Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea; www.skenergy.com) have formed a new joint venture (JV), SK-KBR Technologies Pte. Ltd. Under the shareholders’ agreement, SK-KBR is granted exclusive world-wide rights to market and license SK Energy's petrochemical…
This lignite-drying process increases the efficiency of power and gasification plants
Last month, RWE Power (Cologne, Germany; www.rwe.com) and Linde-KCA-Dresden GmbH (www.linde-kca.com), a subsidiary of The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com), signed a framework agreement on the use of RWE’s WTA technology — a German acronym for fluidized-bed (FB) drying with internal…