Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) is planning to significantly increase its silica (precipitated silicic acids) production capacity over the next four years. “By 2014 we will have gradually expanded global capacity at our existing plants by 25%, thus securing…
Yara Praxair (www.yarapraxair.com) — a 50-50 joint venture between Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) and Yara International ASA — will invest in a new air separation unit (ASU) to be located in Perstorp, Sweden. The plant, with a capacity of…
ExxonMobil (Fairfax, Va.; www.exxonmobil.com) has completed commissioning of new units to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) at its Baytown, Tex., and Baton Rouge, La. refineries. This will enable ExxonMobil to increase the supply of ULSD by over 3 million gal/d…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) plans to build a production facility for customer specific antioxidant blends (CSB) in Bahrain. The new CSB plant will come in addition to the existing tolling agreement for CSB with Astra Polymer in the Kingdom…
Inspirion Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nova Chemicals Inc. (Moon Township, Pa.; www.novachem.com) and PolymerPark materials GmbH (Aachen, Germany; www.polymer-park.com) have formed a joint venture (JV) to bring PolymerPark’s VarioLine technology to North America. VarioLine is a lightweight, foam…
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has signed a contract with Anhui Sanan OptoElectronics Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Sanan OptoElectronics, to build two on-site ammonia plants at Sanan’s new high brightness light emitting diode (LED) manufacturing…
A host of largely positive economic reports out during the past week were highlighted by a surprising gain in retail sales, as well as growth in overseas industrial production, the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) says in its…
Exelus Inc. (Livingston, N.J.; www.exelusinc.com) received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov) to help pilot the company's styrene monomer process. The funds are part of DoE's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) XLerator program, designed…
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) plans to construct a new 180-mile long pipeline connecting its existing Louisiana and Texas hydrogen pipeline systems, creating the world’s largest hydrogen plant and pipeline supply network. This integrated pipeline system…
Wacker Chemicals Korea Inc., a Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) subsidiary, is acquiring the Lucky Silicone brand from Henkel Technologies (Korea) Ltd.. The two companies announced a purchase agreement to this effect today. The transaction still requires antitrust approval.…