Business & Economics
CSB to assess ammonia release in Alabama
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…
Lonza acquires Vivante GMP Solutions
Lonza (Basel, Switzerland; www.lonza.com) enters the viral based-manufacturing market today with its purchase of Vivante GMP Solutions, Inc. (Houston; www.vivante-gmp.com) The acquisition advances Lonza’s strategy to broaden its biologics custom service offering for the growing viral vaccine and gene therapy…
Axens’ Revivoil technology at PDVSA Intevep
PDVSA Intevep (www.pdvsa.com) — the technological division of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) — has selected Axens’ (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) and Viscolube Revivoil technology for its waste oil re-refining plant to be located in San Juan de los Morros (Guárico…
Eka Chemicals divests water-treatment chemical site
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…
Polymer production rose in July, but economic growth weakening, ACC says
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…
Perstorp selects Emerson for automation system upgrade
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…
GEA: major order for power plant
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 starts up new HDPE plant in Germany
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 lands contracts in Iraq
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…
Shell and Cosan sign JV for ethanol production
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…