Business & Economics
Ineos Technologies signs agreement with Sibur
Sibur LLC has selected Ineos’ Innovene PP Process for a new 200,000 m.t./yr polypropylene (PP) plant to be constructed at the production site of Tomskneftekhim LLC, Tomsk, Russian Federation. The Tomsk plant will be the nineteenth to use the Innovene…
Linde to supply gases for, and co-develop solar cells
Linde Nippon Sanso (LNS), a company of The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com), has signed an exclusive contract with Malibu GmbH & Co. KG (Bielefeld, Germany), to supply all of the gases needed to make photovoltaic modules. The long-term contract…
GEA takes over Canadian company ViEX
GEA PHE Systems, Inc. (York, Pa.; www.geaphena.com) a leading international supplier of plate heat exchangers (PHE), has acquired the assets of Canadian PHE specialist ViEX, based in Newmarket near Toronto. Hence, GEA continues their successful growth path and now offers…
IGCC plant celebrates 10 years of operation
Elcogas S.A., a company owned by the Spanish energy group ENDESA, together with other European utilities (EDF, Iberdrola, EDP, ENEL) will celebrate 10 years’ operation of its integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plant in March 2008. The plant in Puertollano,…
BASF/Sinopec ponder expansion of Nanjing site
BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; Beijing, China; www.sinopec.com.cn) have submitted the technical and commercial feasibility study for the approval of the planned $900-million expansion of their joint chemical Verbund site in Nanjing to…
Chemicals industrial city planned for Abu Dhabi
The International Petroleum Investment Company (Abu Dhabi, U.A.E) and Borealis AG (www.borealisgroup.com) have signed a memorandum of understanding along with Abu Dhabi Investment Council to prepare jointly for the first phase of the development of a planned new Chemicals Industrial…
KBR wins contract for Chinese aniline plant
KBR (Houston, Tex.; www.kbr.com) has been awarded a contract by Ningbo Wanhua Polyurethanes Co. to provide the technology and basic engineering for a 360,000-m.t./yr aniline plant. Once complete, Wanhua's aniline plant will be the largest in China and the largest…
Chementator: Methane-to-gasoline process nears commercialization
Synfuels International, Inc. (Dallas, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7370-561) plans to commercialize its patented gas-to-liquids (GTL) process in Kuwait through a newly formed partnership with Kuwait’s Aref Energy Holding (edlinks.chemengonline.com/7370-562). In contrast with Fischer-Tropsch technology, the process produces a high-octane gasoline blend, rather…
Chementator: A commercial debut for a process to make mesoporous silica
Next month, Taiyo Kagaku Co. (Yokkaichi, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7370-563) will start up a 20-m.t./yr plant — said to be the world’s first — for the production of mesoporous silica. Taiyo Kagaku developed the new production process based on technology first introduced…
Chementator: Ceramic ethane-to-ethylene membrane could replace pyrolysis
Ateam of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL, Argonne, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7370-568) has developed a membrane capable of producing olefins from alkanes, and reducing wasted energy and pollutants while improving selectivity and yield. Steam cracking, or…