Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) has been awarded by Total an engineering, procurement services and construction management contract to increase the capacity of the hydrocracker at the Normandy refinery located in Gonfreville, France. This project, which is part of a larger…
The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) today announced that its largest manufacturing facility in Brazil, the Aratu Complex, will add biomass to its portfolio of clean energy sources by the end of 2012. Upon project completion in December 2012,…
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…
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…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the styrene catalysts business of CRI/Criterion (Houston; www.cricatalyst.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell. Financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed. CRI/Criterion is a leading global…