GEA PHE Systems, Inc. (York, Pa.; www.geaphena.com) a leading international supplier of plate heat exchangers (PHE), has acquired the assets of Canadian PHE specialist ViEX, based in Newmarket near Toronto. Hence, GEA continues their successful growth path and now offers…
BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; Beijing, China; www.sinopec.com.cn) have submitted the technical and commercial feasibility study for the approval of the planned $900-million expansion of their joint chemical Verbund site in Nanjing to…
The International Petroleum Investment Company (Abu Dhabi, U.A.E) and Borealis AG (www.borealisgroup.com) have signed a memorandum of understanding along with Abu Dhabi Investment Council to prepare jointly for the first phase of the development of a planned new Chemicals Industrial…
KBR (Houston, Tex.; www.kbr.com) has been awarded a contract by Ningbo Wanhua Polyurethanes Co. to provide the technology and basic engineering for a 360,000-m.t./yr aniline plant. Once complete, Wanhua's aniline plant will be the largest in China and the largest…
The standard way to test for toxicity in individuals who have been exposed to heavy metals is to take a blood sample and analyze it in the laboratory by plasma mass spectrometry, an expensive and time-consuming procedure. Now, a portable…
Although nanoporous silica membranes are promising systems for the molecular separation of gases and liquids, they lack microstructural stability in the presence of water at temperatures as low as 60°C. Prolonged exposure to water causes hydrolysis, resulting in the formation…
Ateam of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL, Argonne, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7370-568) has developed a membrane capable of producing olefins from alkanes, and reducing wasted energy and pollutants while improving selectivity and yield. Steam cracking, or…
Flowserve Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7370-569) has introduced a new noise-attenuating valve-trim for gaseous applications, one that simultaneously lowers the device’s manufacturing costs while improving its noise reduction capabilities. Like prior noise-attenuation trim, Flowserve’s Valtek Stealth is designed to reduce the…
The behavior of many different phenomena can be modeled by systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), but most ODEs cannot be solved analytically, in which case an approximation to the solution is found by applying numerical integration methods. Dutch-sponsored mathematician…
Scientists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Chilton, Didcot, U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7370-573) have developed a laser-based method for the characterization of the bulk-chemical content of pharmaceutical capsules — without opening the capsules. In collaboration with researchers…