Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) today announced China’s first air separation unit (ASU) facility that uses liquefied natural gas (LNG) cold energy to produce industrial gases has been brought onstream. Located in Putian, the plant is…
Teijin Ltd. (Tokyo; www.teijin.co.jp) announced today that it will enter the high-performance polyethylene (HP-PE) market by establishing its first production facility in Emmen, the Netherlands, aiming to start commercial production in the second half of 2011. Teijin plans to grow…
Bayer MaterialScience (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayerbms.com) is driving forward the modernization of its production sites to make them more environmentally friendly. The conversion of a large chemical plant in Dormagen means the company is now able to virtually eliminate the…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) will invest in converting the mercury-based electrolysis into better performing and technologically more advanced membrane-based electrolysis in its Tavaux plant, France. This conversion will reduce the consumption of electrical energy of the electrolysis by 25%…
Chevron Corp. (San Ramon, Cakif.; www.chevron.com) and Atlas Energy, Inc. (Philadelphia, Pa.; www.atlasenergyresources.com) announced today that Chevron would acquire Atlas Energy for cash of $3.2 billion and assumed pro forma net debt of approximately $1.1 billion. The acquisition will provide…
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has signed an agreement with Sabic Americas Inc. (Houston; www.sabic.com/americas/en) to jointly develop and commercialize toluene methylation technology. Toluene methylation is used to selectively produce para-xylene within an aromatics complex. The technology was developed around…
A database just released by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) documents the worldwide growth of gasification, the expected technology of choice for future coal-based plants that produce power, fuels, and chemicals with near-zero emissions. The 2010…
Joint Venture Panama (JVP), a joint venture led (70%) by SNC-Lavalin (Montreal, Canada; www.snclavalin.com), along with partners GyM S.A. (a member of Graña y Montero Group) (15%) and Techint International Construction Corp. (15%), is pleased to announce that it has…
Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) plans to construct manufacturing facilities in China and the U.S. to utilize recently-developed advanced technology for the production of ethanol for chemical applications and other industrial uses. Celanese’s innovative process technology builds on the company’s…
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has agreed to acquire two businesses from Flexsys, a division of Solutia Inc. (St. Louis, Missouri) to strengthen the portfolio of its Rubber Chemicals business unit. Lanxess will acquire the primary accelerator business as well…