Business & Economics
Wound dressing
Last Month, Bayer Innovation GmbH (Leverkusen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6896-551) started a pilot plant for producing a bioresorbable wound dressing in sufficient quantities to enable clinical trials to be carried out. Once the clinical phase of development is sucessfully completed, regulatory approval…
Dow cooperations
The Shenhau Group (China) and the Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6896-552) signed a cooperative agreement last month and plan to study the feasibility for building a world-scale coal-to-chemicals complex in Shaanxi Provence, China. The study is expected to take…
Honoring Innovation
Bringing recognition to high-quality chemical engineering performance has been a priority for this magazine since its founding more than 105 years ago. To signify this, Chemical Engineering will present its Kirkpatrick Award for Chemical Engineering Achievement at a…
May Bookshelf
Compressors and Modern Process Applications. By Heinz P. Bloch. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Web: wiley.com. 2006. 339 pages, $99.95. Reviewed by Stanley S. Grossel, Process Safety & Design, Inc., Clifton, N.J. This is…
A second plant for an oil-recycling process
Following up on its success with the world’s first commercial plant to use a new oil-recycling process, Puralube GmbH (Elsteraue, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-538) plans to build a second plant near the first one, in Zeitz/Elsteraue. Scheduled for startup at the end…
Epichlorohydrin
Dow Epoxy, a business unit of Dow Chemical Co. (Midland Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-541) has selected Shanghai Chemical Industry Park as the site for its 150,000-m.t./yr glycerine-to-epichlorohydrin (GTE) plant and a 100,000-m.t./yr liquid-epoxy-resins plant. Both plants are expected to startup in the…
E&C changes
Last month, Air Liquide S.A. (Paris; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-543) acquired Lurgi AG (Frankfurt, Germany) from the GEA Group AG (Bochum, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-544). Although subject to approval by the European and U.S. competition authorities, the acquisition will enable the acceleration of growth in…
Good Times for Refiners
Improved profitability in the refining industry has brought a wave of investment aimed at raising capacity, boosting product quality and operating flexibility, and increasing refiners’ ability to deal with difficult feedstocks. Greater integration with petrochemical complexes and, in…
A new process for making TDI slated for its commercial debut
When a 300,000-m.t./yr plant starts up in 2010 at Bayer’s integrated site in Shanghai, China, it will be the first world-scale application of a new process for producing toluene diisocyanate (TDI) developed by Bayer MaterialScience AG (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-531).…
Hydrogasification project aims to produce clean energy from coal, wind and biomass
An integrated energy scheme that combines the generation of substitute natural gas (SNG) from coal, coproduction of biofuel and electricity and near-zero emissions of carbon dioxide, is being developed by Arizona Public Service (APS, Phoenix; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-532), Arizona’s largest utility, with…