WorleyParsons Ltd. (North Sydney, Australia; www.worleyparsons.com) has been appointed to provide detailed engineering and procurement services for the tankfarm, piperack, and flare units of Phase 1 of the North West Redwater Partnership’s greenfield bitumen refinery project, located in Sturgeon County,…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will build a new world-scale production plant to manufacture specialty amines at its existing wholly-owned site in the Nanjing Chemical Industry Park in China. The plant, which is scheduled to come on stream in late…
Succinity GmbH (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.succinity.com), the joint venture between Corbion Purac and BASF for the production and commercialization of biobased succinic acid, has announced the successful start-up of its first commercial production facility. The plant, located at the Corbion Purac…
Preliminary data for the December 2013 CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) show a small increase (0.17%) in the overall index compared to the November final index value. The subindices for equipment all rose in December compared…
An American Scientist. By Gabor A. Somorjai with Mitch Jacoby. Archway Publishing. 1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403. Web: archwaypublishing.com. 2013. 250 pages. $27.95. Reviewed by Scott Jenkins, Chemical Engineering magazine, New York, N.Y. For those working in the…
Plant Watch SNC-Lavalin wins contract for sulfuric-acid project in Saudi Arabia February 7, 2014 — SNC-Lavalin Inc. (Montreal, Quebec, Canada; www.snclavalin.com), in consortium with Sinopec Engineering Group, has signed a contract with Ma’aden in Saudi Arabia to provide engineering, procurement,…
Festge Kerin Schuster DiBiano Self Novasep (Pompey, France), a supplier to the life sciences industry, welcomes Thierry Van Nieuwenhove as president of the company’s synthesis business unit. Robert Kumpf becomes CTO of specialty chemicals producer Elevance Renewable Sciences (Woodridge,…
In January, U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes fell 0.7%, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The decline in January follows a 1.1% gain in December and a 0.5%…
JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) has signed a license agreement for its proprietary hydrogen sulfide and sodium sulfide production-process technology with Zhejiang Engineering Design Co. (ZED) in China, to serve as a proxy for licensing the technology to Chinese clients.…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Kemira Oyj (Helsinki, Finland; www.kemira.com) announced today that Kemira will acquire BASF’s global alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) emulsion business. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2014. “Kemira is a…