Business & Economics
Current economic trends
Capital equipment prices, as reflected in the CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI), decreased approximately 0.10% on average from April to May, after increasing approximately 1.14% from March to April. Meanwhile, according to the American Chemistry Council’s (Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) mid-year…
BASF to optimize and consolidate its PAM-bead production
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will consolidate the production of polyacrylamide (PAM) beads into its Bradford, U.K. facility, where the company operates a backward-integrated production plant with worldwide supply capability. Significant investment will be made to increase and upgrade the…
Linde to build two large ASUs in China
The technology company The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has been commissioned to build and operate two large air-separation units (ASUs) to supply gases on site to the Chinese company Yantai Wanhua in Shandong (East China). The contract for the…
Siemens to supply eight coal gasifiers to China
Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.de/energy) has received an order from China to deliver eight coal gasifiers. The units, with a thermal rating of 500 megawatts each, are for a coal gasification plant in Yili City in Xinjiang province. The plant…
Lanxess steps up commitment to China through local investments
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is strengthening its commitment to serve the growing Chinese market with premium products by making a number of local investments totaling more than €40 million. “China remains one of the fastest growing markets in Asia…
Solvay to form JV with Sadara to build H2O2 plant in Saudi Arabia
Solvay S.A. announced today that it has the intention to create a 50/50 joint venture with Sadara Chemical Co. (itself a planned joint venture of Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and The Dow Chemical Co.) for the construction and operation of…
Synagro sludge-to-energy facility gets new contract
Synagro Technologies, Inc. (Houston; www.synagro.com) announced yesterday a 10-year, $28-million contract with the Camden (N.J.) County Municipal Utilities Authority's (CCMUA) to begin operation of a green energy sludge drying facility. The facility converts sewage sludge into a renewable fuel, transforming…
Synthetic fuels: Distributed production set to take off
Following successful the successful demonstration of its microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reactor for small-scale production of biofuels at a biomass gasification plant in Güssing, Austria, the Oxford Catalysts Group Plc. (Abingdon, U.K.; www.oxfordcatalysts.com) has now received an order for two full-scale…
KBR’s phenol technology for Lihuayi Weiyuan Chemical
KBR (Houston; www.kbr.com) was awarded a contract by Lihuayi Weiyuan Chemical Co. to license its phenol technology for Lihuayi’s grassroots, 220,000-ton/yr phenol/acetone plant in Lijin County, Shandong Province, China. “The phenol/acetone project is one of the major organic chemical projects…