Business & Economics
Veolia Water is awarded new contract for water treatment in Brazil…and more business news
Veolia Water is awarded new contract for water treatment and reuse in Brazil September 15, 2009 — Under a 50/50 joint venture with Enfil, a Brazilian, water-treatment engineering company, t he Brazilian oil company Petrobras (Rio de Janeiro; http://www.petrobras.com) has…
Employment Outlook
A continued economic contraction remains the dominant feature of the employment landscape for chemical engineers, with fewer job openings and choosier corporate hiring processes, but chemical engineering salaries are strong, according to those closest to the chemical engineering job front.…
Joseph Acker retires as SOCMA CEO….
Hester Koch Shankland Ragosta Blinn Swagelok Company (Solon, Ohio) names David Hester general manager of Swagelok Ltd. (Isle of Man, U.K.). Joseph Acker retires as president and CEO of the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (SOCMA; Washington, D.C.), effective…
Compressed Gases: Managing Cylinders Safely
Compressed gas cylinders are widely used in research, pilot plant, laboratory and small-scale manufacturing and processing operations as a way to provide a convenient, economical and safe source of high-pressure gases for various applications. These gases can be inert, flammable,…
Energy Efficiency: Tracking Natural Gas With Flowmeters
Thermal mass flowmeters provide advantages over other options for metering the consumption of natural gas by individual combustion units throughout the facility With today’s increased emphasis on strategic energy management, many throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) and elsewhere are…
Wacker exits solar-wafer business
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) exits from the solar wafer business and will transfer its shares in its joint venture Wacker Schott Solar GmbH (WSS) to its former partner Schott Solar AG. Wacker and Schott Solar have reached agreement…
BASF and CSM to develop biobased succinic acid
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and CSM N.V. (Diemen, the Netherlands; www.csm.nl) today announced the cooperation between their respective subsidiaries BASF Future Business GmbH and Purac for the development of the production of biobased succinic acid. Both partners have been working…
CSB reports its conclusions on the causes of massive sugar explosions
In a final draft report released today, U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB; www.csb.gov) investigators said the February 7, 2008, explosion at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga., resulted from ongoing releases of sugar from inadequately designed and maintained…
Energy efficiency is least-expensive utility resource available, report says
Saving a kilowatt-hour through energy-efficiency improvements costs one-third or less than the cost of any new source of electricity supply, according to a new report from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE; Washington, D.C.). Costs for…
Energy Efficiency Improvement Program for SIR Refinery
Axens (Rueil-Malmaison Cedex, France; www.axens.net) and Orbeo (Paris; www.orbeo.com) completed a joint study of the The Ivoirian Refining Co.'s (SIR) Refinery in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to improve its energy efficiency. The study focused on identification of greenhouse gas emission reduction…