Business & Economics
‘Drop-in’ biofuels production facility in Louisiana will apply HTW gasification
Sundrop Fuels, Inc. (Longmont, Colo. www.sundropfuels.com) has signed a comprehensive front end engineering and license agreement with Uhde Corp. of America (Pittsburgh, Pa.) for design of what will be one of the first renewable gasoline production facilities in the world.…
UOP opens gas-processing-membrane manufacturing center in Malaysia
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, has opened a manufacturing and operations center in Penang, Malaysia, that will produce natural gas membrane elements to support the growing natural gas market. UOP’s Separex membrane systems remove impurities from…
JGC: Commercialization of new liquid fuel from low-rank coal
JGC Corp.(Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) has completed the construction of a demonstration plant in Indonesia for the production of a liquid-type new fuel called JGC Coal Fuel (JCF). An inauguration ceremony was held, attended by Indonesian and Japanese government officials, as…
Dr. Haldor Topsøe celebrates his 99th birthday
Management and employees are happy to congratulate the founder on this special occasion. Turning 99 is exceptional. Turning 99 with the business understanding and continuous commitment of Haldor Topsøe is unique. Through Dr. Topsøe’s life-long dedication and ambition, he has…
First microchannel F-T reactor starts up under commercial conditions
Oxford Catalysts Group/Velocys (Abingdon, U.K. and Plain City, Ohio; www.oxfordcatalysts.com) announced that the first commercial-scale microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reactor has been successfully started up and is operating as expected at a client’s facility. The reactor, with a nominal capacity of…
Lukoil to install the 200th Axens’ Prime-G+ Unit
Lukoil Co. (www.lukoil.com) has selected Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) to provide the technology license for a new Prime-G+TM unit to desulfurize FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) gasoline at its Kstovo petroleum refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia. The unit, which…
Lanxess starts up new nitrile butadiene rubber plant in China
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has started up on schedule a nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) plant in Nantong, China, as part of its 50:50 joint venture with Taiwan’s TSRC Corp. The two companies have jointly invested $50 million (approximately €39…
Outotec to deliver technology for copper production to Grupo México
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) and Grupo México have signed a contract for the delivery of solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) technology for Grupo México's Buenavista del Cobre plant, in northern México. The contract value is about €22 million. Outotec's…
U.S. CPRI slipped by 0.3% in April, ACC says
According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com), the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) slipped by 0.3% in April, following a downwardly revised 0.4% decline in March. Chemical production fell across all regions. Using a…
Georg Fischer acquires Independent Pipe Products
Georg Fischer (Schaffhausen, Switzerland; www.georgfischer.com) announced today the acquisition of Independent Pipe Products Inc. (IPP; Dallas, Tex.; www.indpipe.net), the leading U.S. provider of large diameter pipes and fittings in Polyethylene (PE). The acquisition strengthens the leading position of GF Piping…