In The News
Economic Indicators: Business News
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 &…
Chementator: ‘Tiger’ promises to speed up bitumen recovery from tar sands
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…
Chementator: Coal-to-Gasoline Process will Make U.S. Debut
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.…
Chementator: Making CaF2 from HF-laden wastewater
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…
Chementator: An online particle analyzer for caustic slurries
Controlling particle size is critical in alumina processing, especially when alumina crystals are precipitated from Bayer liquor — a highly caustic solution where bauxite is dissolved to produce alumina. The ability to control the conditions of the precipitation process through…
Chementator: Startup for a cellulose-starch ethanol plant
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…
CB&I awarded contracts for world-scale petrochemical complex in India
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com), through Lummus Technology, has been awarded contracts with an overall value in excess of $45 million by Essar Gujarat Petrochemicals Ltd. for technology licenses and basic engineering related to a major grassroots petrochemicals complex in…
Solvay’s vinyls affiliate increases PVC production
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) announces today that its Thai affiliate Vinythai has increased its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production capacity in its plant in Map Ta Phut (Thailand) by 70,000 metric tons (m.t.) to 280,000 m.t./yr, to accompany the growth…
The Linde Group enters into JV with Sinopec subsidiary
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Sinopec Fujian Petrochemical Company Ltd. (FPCL), a subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), for the long-term supply of industrial gases to customers in the…
Evonik Industries to sell North American cyanide activities
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has signed a contract for the sale of its U.S. and Canadian cyanide activities with Oaktree Capital Management. The cyanide business constitutes a part of the CyPlus Group owned by Evonik. The parties have…