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B&W signs contract to begin second phase of FutureGen 2.0 carbon-capture project  

The Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W; Charlotte, N.C.; www.babcock.com) announced today that its subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG), has reached an agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance to begin initial engineering and preparation for full…

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BASF and Markor plan to establish two JVs for BDO and polyTHF in China  

BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Xinjiang Markor Chemical Industry Co. (Markor; ) plan to establish two joint ventures (JVs) for the production of butanediol (BDO) and polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF; chemical name: polytetramethylene ether glycol) in Korla, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region,…

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Lanxess invests €80 million in S-SBR production in Brazil  

Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is strengthening its standing as the world’s leading producer of high-performance rubber. Following a feasibility study, the company has decided to convert production of emulsion styrene butadiene rubber (E-SBR) used in standard tires, to solution…

Professional Bureaucracy

Bob Katin, chairman of the California Government Relations Committee of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and president of the California Legislative Council of Professional Engineers (CLCPE), is a persistent man. For more than 20 years he has fought…

Bookshelf

Machinery Failure Analysis and Troubleshooting: Practical Machinery Management for Process Plants. 4th ed. By Fred Geitner and Heinz Bloch. Elsevier Ltd., The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, U.K.. Web: elsevier.com. 2012. 743 pages. $139.95.   Thermal Methods of…

U.S. specialty chemical market volume slips in January, ACC says

The U.S. specialty-chemical market volume slipped by 0.1% in January, following gains the previous two months, according to the most recent Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com).   Of the 28 market…

Wolfgang Siegel becomes CEO of Ter Hell Plastic GmbH…

  Boyens Lainé Distaso Duncan Siegel   Helmuth Möhwald is elected as a member of the Academia Europaea, a European non-governmental association whose memberships includes experts in technology, medicine, mathematics, economics, the law and more. He is director of the…

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Bechtel acquires Chevron’s water treatment process and more business news

Plant Watch KBR to provide technology package for ammonia/urea plant in Indonesia February 7, 2013 — KBR (Houston; www.kbr.com) has announced that it was selected by PT Pupuk Sriwidjaja Palembang, to provide licensing, engineering services and proprietary equipment for a…

Current Economic Indicators

Preliminary data from the CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; top) for December 2012 (the most recent available) indicate that capital equipment prices rose 0.37% from November to December, reversing the dip from the previous month. Even after the rise, the…

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Outotec grows its maintenance services by acquiring Scanalyse  

Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has signed an agreement to acquire Scanalyse Holdings Pty Ltd., an Australian-based software technology company with operations in Australia, Brazil, Chile and the U.S. Scanalyse provides services in process equipment condition and performance monitoring. The…