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Aspen Tech acquires Sulsim software

Aspen Technology, Inc. (Burlington, Mass.; www.aspentech.com), a provider of software and services to the process industries, announced it has acquired the Sulsim sulfur simulation software from Sulphur Experts Inc.(www.sulphurexperts.com).  The Sulsim sulfur-recovery product has been used by the world’s leading…

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ExxonMobil to construct plants in Singapore, and more business news

Plant Watch ExxonMobil to construct butyl rubber and hydrocarbon resin plants in Singapore March 6, 2014 — ExxonMobil Chemical Co. (Houston; www.exxonmobilchemical.com) plans to build facilities to manufacture halobutyl rubber and hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin at its petrochemical complex in Singapore.…

Current Trends

  The annual 2013 CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI) is available, and stands at 3.0% lower than the 2012 annual average value. However, the initial numbers for 2014 (January 2014 preliminary) generally increased from the final December index values from…

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Samsung Engineering signs oil-field-development contract in Iraq  

Samsung Engineering Co., (Seoul, South Korea; www.samsungengineering.com) has officially announced that it was awarded the North (Hammar Mishrif) New Degassing Station Facilities contract for the ENI Zubair Oil Field Development project in Iraq, worth $840 million. The development of the…

Celanese announces plans for new methanol unit

Celanese Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com) has announced its intent to explore plans to construct a methanol production unit at the company’s Bishop, Tex., facility.   Celanese is preparing to apply for the necessary environmental construction permits for a methanol unit…

Dow and Mitsui start up joint chlor-alkali plant in Texas

The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) has announced that its joint venture membrane chlor-alkali facility with Mitsui & Co., Ltd (Tokyo; www.mitsui.com) has successfully initiated full-scale, commercial production. Dow’s share of the chlorine produced at the Dow-Mitsui Chlor-Alkali Freeport,…

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CB&I awarded contract for plastics project in Oman  

CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded a contract valued in excess of $40 million by Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co. (Orpic) to provide ethylene technology and front end engineering and design (FEED) services for the Liwa…

Asahi Kasei opens new acetonitrile plant in Korea

Asahi Kasei Chemicals (Tokyo, Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) held an opening ceremony celebrating the construction of a new acetonitrile plant in Tongsuh Petrochemical’s plant grounds in Ulsan, Korea, which started up operations in January 2014.   Acetonitrile is mainly used as a…

ExxonMobil opens new plant for metallocene-based polyalphaolefins

ExxonMobil Chemical Co. (Houston; www.exxonmobilchemical.com) has announced the opening of its world-scale manufacturing facility that will enable the company to produce up to 50,000 tons per year of SpectraSyn Elite metallocene polyalphaolefin (mPAO) synthetic lubricant base stocks at its integrated…

Chevron Phillips expands capacity for sulfur-based products in Belgium

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cpchem.com) has announces that its wholly-owned affiliate, Chevron Phillips Chemicals International N.V. is expanding its Tessenderlo, Belgium facility. The expansion includes an on-purpose hydrogen sulfide (H2S) unit and additional sulfur-based products capacity.…