In The News
Economic Indicators: Business News
Plant Watch A new plant for crude-oil processing to be built in Italy December 10, 2007 — ABB has won a contract worth more than $86 million from Eni SpA to design and construct a new oil processing plant in…
Chementator: A Fat Shortage in 2008?
Animal and vegetable oils and fats are a key renewable feedstock for making detergents, soaps, lubricants, paints, coatings, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, as well as additives for plastics, rubber and textiles. However, a consequence of the current EU renewable-energy policy is…
Chementator: Commercialization Is Set for a Fischer-Tropsch Process
Rentech, Inc. (Los Angeles, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-537) will build its first commercial synthetic fuels plant, using the company’s proprietary Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process, near Natchez, Miss. The plant will gasify locally purchased petroleum coke or barged-in coal, along with at least 5%…
Chementator: Gas-to-Polypropylene
Basell Corp. (Frankfurt, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-540), the National Gas Co. of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Ltd. (NGC) and the National Energy Corp. of T&T, Ltd. (NEC; both Point Lisas, Port of Spain) have entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to construct…
Chementator: Algae-to-fuel
Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (The Hague, Netherlands; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-544) and HR Biopetroleum (Honolulu, Hawaii; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-545) have begun construction of a pilot facility to grow marine algae, which will be harvested for producing vegetable oil that will be converted into biofuel. The…
Chementator: Save Space, Money and Water with This New Clarifier Process
At Pollutec 2007 (Paris, France; November 27 – 30), Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (Paris, edlinks.chemengonline.com/7368-531) introduced the next generation of its Actiflo clarifier process for potable and process water — Actiflo Turbo. Like its predecessor, the patented Actiflo Turbo…
Honeywell signs main automation contractor agreement with BP
Honeywell (Phoenix, Ariz.; www.honeywell.com/ps) today announced a six-year agreement with BP Exploration to provide Main Automation Contractor (MAC) services at the oil and gas leader’s new and existing facilities. Honeywell will help BP Exploration & Production (E&P) accelerate production schedules…
Fluor wins Marathon Oil’s $1.6-billion U.S. refinery upgrade
Fluor Corp. has been selected to provide integrated engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for expansion and upgrade of Marathon Oil Corp.’s Detroit, Mich., refinery. The $1.6-billion EPC contract includes services, the value of procured materials and the construction contracts under…
World’s largest gas turbine begins trial operation
First firing of the world’s largest and most powerful gas turbine, developed by Siemens (Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com), was achieved as scheduled on December 20, 2007. This marks the beginning of a planned 18-month trial operation period at the E.ON Irsching…
Linde seals exclusive gas contract in China
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has secured a long-term contract with Ningbo Wanhua Polyurethane, which is one of the fastest growing chemical companies for the production of polyurethanes in China. Linde will supply oxygen and nitrogen to Wanhua’s world-scale…