The Vivergo bioethanol plant, a joint venture between BP (London, U.K.; www.bp.com), DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; www.dupont.com) and AB Sugar, was officially opened in Hull. The new £350 million plant is the U.K.’s biggest bioethanol producer and largest single-source supplier of…
EuroChem (Moscow, Russia; www.eurochem.ru), a global fertilizer company, announced its intention to build an ammonia and urea production plant in Louisiana to manufacture and distribute fertilizer products in the U.S. and other markets. The project requires an estimated investment of…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will increase its global capacities for producing the chemical intermediate 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and the BDO derivative PolyTHF (polytetramethylene ether glycol; PTMEG) within the coming two years. BASF’s annual BDO capacity will rise from 535,000 to…
Phoenix Solar Inc. (San Ramon, Calif.; www.phoenixsolar.com), the U.S. subsidiary of Phoenix Solar AG has announced it signed a contract with Silicon Ranch Corp. (Nashville, Tenn.; www.siliconranchcorp.com) to build a 38.6-MW solar plant called Simon Solar Farm outside Atlanta, Georgia.…
Michelman, Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio; www.michelman.com) has acquired Ecronova Polymer GmbH (Recklinghausen, Germany), a manufacturer of water-based polymers used in the production of paints and lacquers. The purchase includes all assets, technology and manufacturing facilities. The name Ecronova Polymer will continue…
Saudi Organometallic Chemicals Co. (SOCC), a joint venture (JV) equally owned by Albemarle Netherlands B.V., a subsidiary of Albemarle Corp. (Baton Rouge, La.; www.albemarle.com) and Saudi Specialty Chemical Company, an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) announced today the…
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) recently started up the world’s largest helium purification and liquefaction unit, a turnkey project at Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. The new unit’s production capacity is approximately 38 million m3/yr of helium. The high technologies…
Huntsman Corp. (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.huntsman.com) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the business of Oxid L.P., a privately held manufacturer of specialty urethane polyols based in Houston. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Oxid’s polyols…
Clariant International Ltd. (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com), a specialty chemicals producer, and Wilmar International Ltd., an Asian agribusiness group, have received the relevant merger clearances for the establishment of their 50-50 joint venture (JV) called “the global amines company”, which is…
Shanxi Coking Co. Ltd., has signed a license agreement for Unipol Polypropylene (PP) Process Technology with Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (Dow; Midland, Mich., www.dow.com). Shanxi Coking is the…