Business & Economics
A ‘green’ process for petroleum refineries
“Green” diesel fuel that can be blended with petroleum-derived diesel fuel has been produced from vegetable oil in a process developed jointly by UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-533) and Eni S.p.A. (Milan, Italy). The fuel is a “premium diesel…
Shock waves step up biodiesel-fuel production
Biodiesel fuel is typically produced by the transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fats in a batch operation that takes about 1-1/2 h. Hydro Dynamics, Inc. (HDI; Rome, Ga.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-534) claims to have cut the residence time to 2–3 s…
Interphex Show Preview
The world's largest pharmaceutical conference and exhibition, Interphex, will be held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York from April 24-26. Approximately 1,000 global companies that serve the pharmaceutical and biotechnical industries will showcase their latest…
Calendar – April
NORTH AMERICA RFID Journal LIVE Annual Conference and Exhibition. RFID Journal LLC (Melville, N.Y.). Phone: 631-249-4989; Fax: 631-980-4314; Web: rfidjournal.com Orlando, Fla. Apr. 30-May 2 Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Seminar. New Standard Inst. (Milford, Conn.). Phone: 203-783-1582;…
Dow will commercialize its Olefin-Block Copolymers technology
Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-531) will begin commercial-scale production of Infuse olefin-block copolymers (OBCs), using its Insite technology, in the third quarter of 2007. The company recently completed a trial manufacturing run of OBCs at the plant, which is…
Calendar – April
NORTH AMERICA RFID Journal LIVE Annual Conference and Exhibition. RFID Journal LLC (Melville, N.Y.). Phone: 631-249-4989; Fax: 631-980-4314; Web: rfidjournal.com Orlando, Fla. Apr. 30-May 2 Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Seminar. New Standard Inst. (Milford, Conn.). Phone: 203-783-1582;…
A sustainable route to succinic acid
A demonstration plant that will produce 5,000 m.t./yr of succinic acid from biomass will be built in Pomacle, France, by BioAmber, a joint venture of Diversified Natural Products (DNP, New York, N.Y.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-535) and Agro Industries Recherche et Developpement (ARD,…
A step closer to transporting natural gas hydrates
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. (MES; Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-540), in cooperation with Chugoku Electric Power Co. (Hiroshima, Japan), is building a pilot plant that will produce 5-m.t./d of natural gas hydrate (NGH). The plant, located at Chugoku Electric's Yanai Power…
Ethanol partnership
Mascoma Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-545) and Royal Nedalco (Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands) have signed a license and joint-development agreement with the goal of commercializing ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. Nedalco has developed modified yeasts that can produce ethanol from all…
Uniting on interoperability
It's a simple matter of fact: a chemical process plant operates by the products and services of numerous - and, unavoidably, competing - vendors. Since the resulting compatibility issues only hamper productivity, vendors, EPC firms and owner/operators alike tried to…