AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, The Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) completed the sale of its primary amides chemicals business to the chemicals and plastics company PMC Group Inc. (Mt. Laurel, N.J.; www.pmc-group.com), effective December 31, 2013. Financial details were not disclosed. Under the terms of…
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) announced today that it has acquired the assets of FMHC Corp. (FMHC; Chicago, Ill). FMHC is a nationwide provider of turnkey wireless communications site development, design, network deployment, construction, and related services to…
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has signed a long-term agreement for the production of liquid CO2 with Big River Resources Boyceville, LLC (Boyceville, Wisc.). Air Products will operate a facility to produce 250 ton/d of liquid CO2 at Big…
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing purchasing manager’s index (PMI) rose 0.2 points in December 2013, to a level of 53.3. The gain is 12 consecutive monthly rise, and the highest level for the index in 32 months, according to the…
Have you ever heard someone say, “The job is a lot easier if you have the right tools?” Having the right tools is critical to the success of craftsmen, such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers and the like. The same holds…
Pressure Vessels Field Manual: Common Operating Problems and Practical Solutions. By Maurice Stewart and Oran T. Lewis. Gulf Professional Publishing, 2 Greenway Plaza, Suite 1020, Houston, TX 77046. Web: gulfpub.com. 2013. 498 pages. $79.95. Reviewed by Keith Kachelhofer, Hargrave Engineers…
Uhrig Laborde Sielaff Scheu Festge Bioformix, Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio), a manufacturer of energy-efficient, sustainable polymer platforms, names Jeff Uhrig senior vice president of corporate strategy. Nadege Laborde becomes president of the industrial biotech business unit of Novasep (Pompey,…
Plant Watch Praxair starts up carbon-dioxide purification plant at Honeywell site December 10, 2013 — Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) has started up its new carbon-dioxide (CO2) purification facility at the Honeywell Resins & Chemicals site in Hopewell, Va. Under…
Preliminary data for the October 2013 CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) show a slight (less than 0.1%) increase in the overall index, as well as small increases in most of the index subcategories. The Pipes, Valves…
Rosneft, LLC (Moscow, Russia; www.rosneft.com), Pirelli Tyre Russia and Oil Techno have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with regard to establishing a styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) production joint venture (JV) in Armenia. The synthetic rubber JV will focus especially on…