Plant Watch Emerson wins contract to automate water-treatment-chemicals plant in China August 20, 2008 — Nalco Industrial Services Co. has selected Emerson Process Management to be the main instrument vendor for a new water-treatment-chemicals plant in the Nanjing Chemical &…
A new metal carbide F-T catalyst has been developed by Oxford Catalysts Limited (Oxford, U.K., www.oxfordcatalysts.com) for making second-generation biofuel in small-scale microchannel reactors. The catalyst was produced using the company’s patented organic matrix combustion method, which makes it possible…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen; www.evonik.com) and SolarWorld AG (Bonn, both Germany; www.solarworld.de) have opened a new solar silicon plant in Rheinfelden (Baden, Germany). As part of the joint venture (JV) Joint Solar Silicon (JSSI), the two companies are using a…
Fluorite, the natural mineral of calcium fluoride, is a key feedstock for making fluorochemicals. In Japan, however, the cost and availability of fluorite has become problematic due to recent restrictions on its import from China. To alleviate the problem, Organo…
Vogelbusch GmbH (Vienna, Austria; www.vogelbusch.com) has developed a patent-pending distributor system that it claims makes possible the adaption of simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography for use in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to this, SMB use has been limited to the…
Last month, AE Biofuels (Cupertino, Calif.; www.aebiofuels.com) opened an integrated cellulose-and-starch ethanol demonstration facility in Butte, Mont. If operated at full capacity, the plant could produce 150,000 gal/yr of ethanol. The plant uses ambient-temperature cellulose-starch-hydrolysis (ATCSH) enzyme technology to optimize…
Ehrfeld Mikrotechnik BTS GmbH (EMB), a subsidiary of Bayer Technology Services GmbH (BTS; Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayertechnology.com), has signed a production-and-marketing agreement with Xytel Inc. (Spartanburg, S.C.; www.xytelcorp.com) to introduce microreactor technology in pilot plants for the oil and gas, chemical…
A microbial process originally designed to remediate soils contaminated with hydrocarbons has accelerated the recovery of bitumen from oil sands fivefold in bench-scale tests conducted at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL, South Carolina; srnl.doe.gov). The heart of the process is…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) plans to acquire Ciba Holding AG (Basel, Switzerland), a leading specialty chemical company, and will make a public takeover offer to Ciba’s shareholders. BASF will pay CHF 50.00 in cash for each nominal share in…
Consol Energy Inc. (Pittsburgh, Penn.; www.consolenergy.com), the nation’s largest producer of bituminous coal, and Synthesis Energy Systems Inc. (SES, Houston, Tex.; www.synthesisenergy.com) have formed a joint venture to build a coal-to-gasoline plant near Benwood, W.Va., close to Consol’s Shoemaker complex.…