Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) has signed an agreement with Lurgi GmbH (Frankfurt, Germany; www.lurgi.com), for the technology licensing and engineering that will allow SABIC to produce oleo-chemicals at its affiliate, Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co., following…
A three-member assessment team led by Johnnie Banks from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB, Washington, D.C.; www.csb.gov) is deploying to the scene of last week's anhydrous ammonia release at the Millard Refrigerated Services, a warehouse and distribution center in…
Eka Chemicals AB (Bohus, Sweden; www.akzonobel.com/eka) has agreed to divest its water treatment chemicals production activities located in Vetlanda, Sweden, to Feralco Nordic AB (www.feralco.com). The polyaluminium chloride products produced at this site are used for a number of flocculation…
Production of several high-volume polymers in the U.S. were up in July, but a troubled housing market meant lower economic growth, the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) says in its most recent economic assessment report. In the…
Emerson Process Management’s (Baar, Switzerland; www.emersonprocess.com) DeltaV digital automation system has been selected by Perstorp, the speciality chemicals group for the control system upgrade at its pentaerythritol processing plant in Perstorp, Sweden. The existing distributed control system will be replaced…
The GEA Group (Bochum, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has received a large order over €20 million from a renown EPC contractor active in the Middle East for a Heller dry cooling system. GEA's installation will cool a new gas fired combined cycle…
LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) has successfully started up a new 320,000-ton/yr Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (ACP) high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Münchsmünster, Germany. The Münchsmünster HDPE plant enhances LyondellBasell’s flexibility to supply advanced HDPE grades to customers in…
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has been awarded two contracts by the Republic of Iraq Ministry of Oil through the South Refineries Company. KBR will provide licensing and basic engineering services for the construction of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and solvent…
A $12-billion joint venture (JV) between Shell International Petroleum Co. (Shell; The Hague, The Netherlands; www.shell.com) and Cosan S.A. (Cosan; Brazil; www.cosan.com.br/) moved closer to reality today when the two companies signed binding agreements. The proposed JV, which still requires…
Aveva Inc. (Houston; www.aveva.com) has released AVEVA NET Portal 4.5, a highly configurable user interface designed specifically to improve the accessibility of objects and documents used in complex engineering projects and throughout the long-term operation of such assets. The powerful new…