As the lines of demarcation separating scientific disciplines continue to blur, increasing clarity arises for the recognition that the scientific borderlands represent the fertile ground for future advancements. A recent illustration of that concept emerged at a symposium last…
Most of the more than $100 billion in capital spending and $1.2 trillion in prodution costs spent annually by the chemical process industries (CPI) is committed by decisions made in the early phases of process development and plant design. A…
James R. Fair October 14, 1920 – October 11, 2010 Longtime readers of this magazine will be saddened to learn that on October 11, Dr. James Fair passed away at the age of 90. At…
Engineers and others working in the chemical process industries (CPI) generally are experiencing an employment situation that is significantly improved over 12 to 18 months ago, with a tentative optimism among CPI companies driving significant hiring activity. Demand for chemical…
Rabie Hansen Chen McCoole Stephanou Oseco (Broken Arrow, Okla.), a manufacturer of rupture disks, names Darren Doyle vice president of sales. Koch Membrane Systems (Wilmington, Mass.), a supplier of membrane filtration technology and systems support, promotes Hamid Rabie to chief…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Ineos Industries Holdings Limited (Lyndhurst, U.K.; www.ineos.com) have announced their intention to combine their global business activities in styrene monomers (SM), polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), styrene-butadiene block copolymers (SBC) and other styrene-based…
ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) and Baldor Electric Co. (Fort Smith, Ark.) have agreed that ABB will acquire Baldor in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $4.2 billion, including $1.1 billion of net debt. Under the terms of the definitive agreement,…
Lummus Technology (The Woodlands, Tex.), a CB&I company (www.cbi.com), has been awarded a contract by Liaoning Tongyi Petrochemical Co. for the license and engineering design of grassroots OCT olefins-conversion units and Catofin dehydrogenation units at several of its sites in…
The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) has increased its monopropylene glycol (MPG) capacity by 15%, an additional 35,000 ton/yr, in the Stade, Germany plant after completion of an advanced energy improvement and technology optimization project. “The investment in our…
ABB (Baden, Switzerland; www.abb.com) and Holcim Switzerland have agreed to install ABB’s newly developed heat recovery and electrical power production system at Holcim’s cement plant in Untervaz, Switzerland. ABB’s state-of-the-art solution is based on the ORC (organic Rankine cycle) technology…