In the U.S. last year, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita powerfully demonstrated the ability of nature to disrupt companies’ operations and commitments. In a business context, the effects of such natural (or, for that matter, civil or social) disruptions can be…
Whether working on retrofits or new-plant construction, engineers involved with chemical-process projects nowadays are likely to find themselves under pressure to reach completion quickly, sometimes even at the cost of bypassing traditional procedures and project controls. The downside becomes a…
Measure more than pH with this non-glass meter This multiparameter meter measures pH, temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solids and salinity. Featuring a stainless steel pH probe and solid-state conductivity electrode, the IQ170 (photo, far left) is NEMA4X rated and can…
Du Pont (Wilmington, Del.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-550) and the city of Dongying, China, have reached an agreement for constructing a 200,000-m.t./yr plant for producing titanium oxide, a pigment used in coatings, plastics and the paper industry. Pending relevant government approvals, the $1-billion…
With plans to double its investment in alternative energy, BP (London; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-551) has formed BP Alternative Energy (Sunbury, U.K.), which will manage an investment program in solar, wind, H2, and IGCC power generation. Click here for a full pdf…
Ultrasound Brewery Co. (Naruto, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-535) has developed a process that separates the water from dilute solutions of alcohol to achieve 99.5%, without using conventional evaporation or distillation. The company has tested the process in a pilot plant that produces…
Arkema, Inc. (formerly Atofina Chemicals, Inc.; King of Prussia, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-536) has commercialized a patented technology, based on nitroxide compounds, which can be used to control free-radical polymerization reactions. Each alkoxyamine of the BlocBuilder technology contains a functional group for…
Last month, “Series C” funding in the plastic-electronics development company, Plastic Logic Ltd. (Cambridge, U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-537), reached $24 million, with the addition of investments from four new companies, including BASF Venture Capital GmbH (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-538). Other companies that have…
A simple tank-and-siphon system for removing oil from wastewater has been launched internationally by an engineering team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW; Sydney, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-541). Called the Extended Gravity Oil Water Separator (EGOWS), it is described as…
Process System Enterprise Ltd. (PSE; London, U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-542) has launched the latest of a series of gPROMS Advanced Model Libraries (AMLs) for Gas-Liquid Contactors (GLCs). This “open model” library of high-fidelity, non-equilibrium-component models covers a wide range of gas-liquid-separation operations,…