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Sasol selects Technip for furnace engineering contract

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 begins operations at new plant for functionalized polybutadienes

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…

Trelleborg acquires coated fabrics specialist company

Trelleborg’s engineered fabrics operation in the U.S. (Spartanburg, S.C.; www.trelleborg.com), announces its acquisition of the assets and businesses of coated fabrics specialists, Uretek Archer LLC Group (New Haven, Conn.; www.uretek.com), comprising Uretek LLC and Archer Rubber Company LLC. Trelleborg says…

Vertellus increases presence in life-sciences market with Pentagon acquisition

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…

Current economic trends

The preliminary value for the August CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) rose 0.35% from the final July value, continuing a string of five consecutive monthly increases. The Equipment subindex saw the largest month-to-month gain, while the…

Bookshelf November 2014

Creating and Leading a High-Performance Chemical Plant. By Bob Gilbert. Tate Publishing & Enterprises LLC, 127 East Trade Center Terrace, Mustang, OK,73064. Web: tatepublishing.com. 2014. 56 pages. $7.99. A Conceptual Guide to Thermodynamics. By Bill Poirier. John Wiley & Sons…

Frank Oosterlinck becomes managing director of Fike Europe…

GEA Refrigeration Technologies GmbH (Bochum, Germany) names Nadine Kipphardt marketing manager. Ralph Exton, chief marketing officer, water and process technologies, for GE Power & Water (Schenectady, N.Y.), has been appointed to serve as the 2014–2015 treasurer on the board of…

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Kemira inaugurates its largest water-treatment chemicals plant; and more business news

PLANT WATCH Kemira inaugurates its largest water-treatment chemicals plant October 9, 2014 — Kemira Oyj (Helsinki; www.kemira.com) has inaugurated its biggest manufacturing plant for water-treatment chemicals. Located in Dormagen, Germany, the facility will produce 14 different specifications of acidic and alkaline…

NatureWorks’ bioplastics initiative receives $2.5 million DOE grant

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…

Specialty chemicals ended third quarter on a positive note, ACC says

U.S. specialty chemical market volumes ended the third quarter strongly, with a 0.9% gain in September, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com).   The September gain followed no…