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Business News: April 2022

Plant Watch Repsol begins construction of Cartagena biofuels plant March 8, 2022 — Repsol S.A. (Madrid, Spain; www.repsol.com) began construction work on the first advanced biofuels plant in Spain at the company’s Cartagena refinery, which will produce fuels using waste…

Evonik expands capacities for petrochemical specialties

Evonik (Marl, Germany; www.evonik.com) has invested a double-digit million euro sum to increase production capacity for isobutene derivatives at its Marl location. The isobutene part of the C4 production network produces the petrochemical specialties tertiary butanol (TBA), di-isobutene (DiB) and…

MOL Petrochemicals lays foundation for new propylene plant

An official foundation stone-laying ceremony of the new propylene plant of MOL Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. (Tiszaújváros, Hungary; www.molgroupchemicals.com), took place in Tiszaújváros, Hungary today. The plant is built as a greenfield investment for 65 billion HUF and will produce 100,000…

Clariant joins Renewable Carbon Initiative

Specialty chemicals company Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) today announced that it has joined the Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI). The aim of the RCI is to support and accelerate the transition from the use of fossil carbon to the use of…

CEPCI Annual Average Value Rises Precipitously from Last Year

The value of the 2021 Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index (CEPCI), calculated as an average of the monthly values for the year, was higher than the annual value for 2020 by a large margin, as the CEPCI has risen each…

thyssenkrupp wins an order for a pharma-grade SFE plant for solids extraction

thyssenkrupp’s Uhde High Pressure Technologies GmbH (Hagen, Germany). won an order from a company in the specialty chemicals sector to fabricate and supply a pharma-grade supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) plant. The scope of supply includes the skid-mounted plant, as well…

Koch Modular Process Systems to supply modular recycling systems for PureCycle polypropylene facility

Koch Modular Process Systems, LLC (Paramus, N.J.; www.kochmodular.com), a provider of engineered and fabricated modular reaction and mass-transfer systems, today announced that they are expanding their ongoing business relationship with PureCycle Technologies, Inc.  and will supply the modular recycling systems…

PPG opens powder coatings R&D facility in Italy

PPG (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com) today announced the opening of its new European Central Powder Coatings Research and Development (R&D) Center in Milan, Italy. The facility’s expanded capabilities, which include a customer application center, will enhance and accelerate powder coatings product…

Kraton and SABIC collaborate on renewable butadiene

SABIC (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) has announced a new collaboration with Kraton (Houston, Tex.; www.kraton.com), a producer of specialty polymers and high-value bio-based products derived from pine wood pulping co-products, to deliver certified renewable butadiene from its TruCircle portfolio for…

Conagen announces bio-based debondable hot-melt adhesives

Biotechnology company Conagen (Bedford, Mass.; www.conagen.com) recently announced the development of highly sought-after debondable hot melt adhesives made by high-performance materials from sustainable and natural bio-molecules. The announcement offers a new alternative for manufacturers seeking debondable structural adhesive solutions to…