Neste Oil Oyj (Uusimaa; www.nesteoil.com) has selected Neste Jacobs Oy (Porvoo, both Finland; www.nestejacobs.com) as its main partner for a pilot plant designed to produce waste-based microbial oil at its Porvoo refinery. It will be the first pilot plant in…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) is participating with $30 million through BASF Biorenewable Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG in the American technology firm Renmatix Inc. (King of Prussia, Pa.; www.renmatix.com). The BASF subsidiary led a $50 million financing round, joined…
January 1, 2012 marked the launch of the new TU Delft Process Technology Institute. All Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; the Netherlands; www.tudelft.nl) research in the field of process technology will be integrated in this institute. “What makes this…
[The following originally appeared in the January 2012 Letters page] The Chemical Engineer ( tce) for the past two years has run a series of articles in which it profiles some of the most interesting chemical engineers. At the end…
Mechanical integrity is an essential consideration in heat exchanger design. The most common threat to this integrity is tube bundle vibration. So, the computer programs used for heat exchanger design incorporate procedures that assess this threat. However, such analysis is…
Projects have been undertaken by nations, private enterprises and individuals for more years than recorded history. Over the last three decades, project execution in the chemical process industries (CPI) has become almost standardized, with the general adoption of certain well-known…
Plant Watch Linde to build hydrogen plant for chemical complex in China December 5, 2011 — The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) plans to build and operate a new hydrogen plant in the Jilin Chemical Industrial Park in China. The…
Use a total cost of ownership approach to optimize value when purchasing equipment and support services Maximizing value during the procurement of equipment assets and raw materials is critical to the business functions of companies in the chemical process industries…
Clausen Hirai Snyder Stehle Taylor Haldor Topsøe (Lyngby, Denmark) promotes Bjerne Clausen to CEO. SmartKem (St. Assaph, North Wales), a developer of flexible, printable semiconductor materials, appoints Yutaka Hirai to be its representative in Japan. Intelligrated (Somerset, N.J.), a provider…
As we round the corner from 2011 to 2012, economists are painting dimming pictures for global economic recovery. For instance, a report from IHS (Lexington, Mass.; www.ihs.com) chief economist Nariman Behravesh says, “World growth will slow in 2012 — the…