Despite headlines to the contrary, the U.S. economy remains in a state of slow growth, according to the American Chemistry Council's (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) monthly Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), released this week. The economic indicator, shown to lead U.S.…
U.S. transactions led merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the chemicals industry in the first quarter of 2013, driving almost 45% of the total deal value as companies focused on domestic growth, according to PwC US (PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLC; New York;…
Sulzer Ltd. (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzer.com) has been awarded a contract for the delivery of a production plant based on Sulzer's proprietary polylactic acid (PLA) technology (for more process details, see Chem. Eng., March 2012; www.chemengonline.com/chementator/9161.html). The facility, with a capacity of…
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has signed a contract with various Industrias Peñoles' mines ("Grupo Peñoles") for the delivery of grinding mills and filters for three new concentrators to be built in Mexico in the next years. The contract value…
MAN Diesel & Turbo SE (Augsburg, Germany; www.man.eu) has been awarded the contract for a major project to construct eleven turbomachinery trains in China. The contract value is in excess of €125 million. The site of the project is Yinchuan…
Rennovia, Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.; www.rennovia.com), announced at the PCI 6th American Nylon Symposium that it has successfully demonstrated production of hexamethylenediamine (HMD) from widely available, renewable feedstocks. Coupled with Rennovia’s previously announced renewable adipic acid, this enables for the…
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, announced today that it was selected by Crosstex Processing Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Crosstex Energy, L.P., to provide technology and equipment to extract valuable petrochemical feedstocks from natural gas liquids…
As part of the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, the Energy Department (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) today announced nearly $18 million in four innovative pilot-scale biorefineries in California, Iowa and Washington that will test renewable biofuels as a domestic alternative…
Praxair Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) has entered into a long-term agreement with North West Redwater Partnership (NWR) to build, own and operate an air separation facility at NWR’s Sturgeon Refinery near Edmonton, Alberta. The…
Industrial production rose by 0.4% in March, according to data from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (Washington, D.C.; www.federalreserve.gov) that was discussed in the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). …