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Nouryon completes organic peroxides expansion in India

Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals; www.nouryon.com) has completed a €4-million expansion at Mahad, India which will increase organic peroxides production capacity at the site by 80%. The increased capacity will support growing customer demand in India and the Middle East…

Sumitomo and Zymergen to collaborate on advanced materials development

Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp) and Zymergen (Emeryville, Calif.; www.zymergen.com) announced that they have signed a multi-year partnership to bring new specialty materials to the market. This collaboration between the two companies will enable the development of new materials…

Toyo Engineering and BASF enter engineering partnership for Asia Pacific projects

Toyo Engineering Corp. (Tokyo; www.toyo-eng.com), together with Toyo Engineering Corporation (China) (Toyo-China, President Benli Dong), have concluded a comprehensive engineering partnership agreement with BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, German; www.basf.com) in Asia Pacific for the term of 5 years. The agreement covers…

Celanese to significantly expand Clear Lake methanol plant

Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) has announced plans to significantly expand methanol production capacity at the company’s Clear Lake acetyl intermediates manufacturing facility located in Pasadena, Texas. Celanese has recently been granted approvals from the Fairway Methanol LLC board of…

ABB names former Shell chairman as interim CEO

The Board of Directors of ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) announced that its CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer will step down from his role, which he has held since 2013. The Chairman of the Board, Peter Voser, will become interim CEO in addition…

PetroChina to build three new HDPE units using LyondellBasell process technology

LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) announced that PetroChina will use the LyondellBasell Hostalen “Advanced Cascade Process” (Hostalen ACP) technology to produce 1,100,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) capacity. Licensor selection has been done by China HuanQiu…

Pressure Swing Adsorption Technology

Pressure swing adsorption technology is well known for H2 purification applications, but the technique can also be used for other gas-separation processes in petroleum refining facilities Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a well-established process for the separation and purification of…

Petrofac announces startup of UAE’s first alumina refinery

Petrofac Ltd. (St. Helier, U.K.; www.petrofac.com) announced that Emirates Global Aluminum’s (EGA) Al Taweelah alumina refinery has started up, a major milestone for EGA and for industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is the first alumina refinery in…

Showa Denko starts up liquefied CO2 plant

Showa Denko Gas Products Co., Ltd. (SGP), a consolidated subsidiary of Showa Denko (SDK; Tokyo; www.sdk.co.jp), has established a new plant to produce liquefied carbon dioxide (CO2) in its Oita Plant located in the premise of SDK’s Oita Petrochemical Complex,…

MOL Group to acquire recycled-plastics compounder in Germany

MOL Group (Budapest, Hungary; www.molgroup.info) announced that it has signed a sales-purchase agreement to acquire Aurora Kunststoffe GmbH, a recycled plastic compounder with production plants located nearby automotive manufacturing and plastics conversion clusters in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Aurora is a medium-size…