Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc. (Columbus, Ohio; www.momentive.com) has announced the latest expansion of its Forest Products business through the construction of two new formaldehyde plants in Lousiana, in Geismar and Luling, respectively. The company plans to invest approximately $66…
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a contract to commercialize an energy-saving distillation system, called SuperHIDiC, which was patented in 2011. The contract is for a distillation column in a methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) production plant to…
Solazyme, Inc. (South San Francisco, Calif.; www.solazyme.com) and Versalis, the chemical subsidiary of Eni s.p.A. (Milan, Italy; www.eni.com) have announced a partnership to expand the commercial use of Encapso, what is said to be the world’s first commercially-available, biodegradable encapsulated…
Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cpchem.com) has announced a study to expand its low-viscosity polyalphaolefins (PAO) capacity by 10,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas. Currently, its low…
AkzoNobel N.V. (www.akzonobel.com)has started operations at its new Powder Coatings plant in Dubai. The facility will significantly increase capacity for the company’s Interpon and Resicoat products. The state-of-the art site is AkzoNobel’s sixth manufacturing plant in the Middle East and…
Momentive Performance Materials Inc. (Waterford, N.Y.; www.momentive.com) has commissioned two new expansions at its Rayong, Thailand manufacturing facility to serve the growing Asian market demand for specialty chemicals. Commissioning took place as part of part of the 10th anniversary celebration…
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) was awarded by Sasol Ltd. (Johannesburg, South Africa; www.sasol.co.za) a contract to provide engineering and procurement for eight proprietary Ultra Selective Conversion (USC) furnaces for a world-scale ethane cracker and derivatives complex to be located in…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) opened a new plant for hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) in Marl, Germany. The group invested a mid-double-digit million euro amount in the plant, which has a production capacity of several thousand metric tons per…
Vertellus (Indianapolis, Ind.; www.vertellus.com), a leading producer of pyridine and pyridine derivative chemicals, announced that it has purchased Pentagon Chemicals (Holdings) U.K. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of fine and specialty chemicals used in the life-sciences industry. The acquisition significantly expands…
The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Energy (DOE) Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies announced a grant of up to $2.5 million to NatureWorks, LLC (Minnetonka, MN; www.natureworksllc.com), one of the world’s leading suppliers of bioplastics, in support of an…