Plant Watch Chandra Asri and Michelin partner on synthetic-rubber manufacturing plant November 11, 2013 — PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (Jakarta, Indonesia; www.chandra-asri.com) and Compagnie Financière Michelin have formed a partnership for the inauguration of a synthetic-rubber plant. Construction of…
One of the chemical process industries’ (CPI) foremost authorities on process safety, Trevor Kletz, passed away in late October at the age of 91. Amongst Kletz’s many achievements, one that stands out is his extensive contributions to the concept of…
Capital cost calculations I recently read the article “Capital Costs Quickly Calculated” [ Chem. Eng., pp.46–52, April 2009] and find it extremely informative and useful. I have reservations about the example given about the cost comparison of two spherical storage…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has produced its first commercial volumes of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from renewable raw material, and is offering this product to customers for testing and commercial use. The production process relies on a patented fermentation technology from…
The U.S. economy is likely to see continued, albeit conservative growth in 2014, according to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) monthly Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), released today. The Chemical Activity Barometer is an established leading economic indicator,…
Kuraray ( Tokyo, Japan; www.kuraray.co.jp/en) and DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; www.dupont.com) have signed a definitive agreement for DuPont to sell Glass Laminating Solutions/Vinyls (GLS/Vinyls), a part of DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers, to Kuraray for $543 million, plus the value of the…
Sasol Ltd. (Johannesburg, South Africa; www.sasol.co.za) announced today that it has selected Technip S.A. (Paris; www.technip.com) as the primary contractor for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase of its proposed gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility in Louisiana. "The selection of Technip…
The U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) was lower by 0.2% in October, following a revised 0.3% decline for September, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). …
Caloric Anlagenbau GmbH (Gräfelfing, Germany; www.caloric.com) has been awarded a contract for the engineering and manufacturing of a new thermal treatment plant with an integrated HCl recovery unit from a major chemical company in Poland. The thermal treatment unit is…
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) plans to expand its production capacity for dispersible polymer powders capacity at its Nanjing (China) site in 2014. By productivity improvement and debottlenecking measures in existing facilities, Wacker intends to essentially double its current…