Business & Economics
Green glycol
Last month, the Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-546) introduced Propylene Glycol Renewable (PGR), a monopropylene glycol that is made from glycerin generated during the production of biodiesel. Dow is conducting PGR trials with customers and anticipates having limited commercial…
Tri-generation
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-547) and FuelCell Energy Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-548) have begun construction on an advanced hydrogen-energy demonstration station. The station, funded in part from the DOE, will demonstrate tri-generation of hydrogen, electric power and heat from…
Target Costing
Free trade agreements, global manufacturing standards and the Internet have made it possible for companies to do business in countries they would not have considered 20 years ago. Open is a world of opportunity, but for processors of…
Organic semiconductors
BASF Future Business GmbH (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-536) has entered a licensing and joint-development agreement with Rieke Metals, Inc. (Lincoln, Neb.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-537) and will soon start the industrial-scale production and sales of organic semiconductors (OSCs; polythiophenes). High-purity polythiophenes will be made…
Make more olefins economically with this new catalytic-cracking process
SK Corp. (Seoul, South Korea; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-542) has developed a new process to increase the yield of olefins from the catalytic cracking of paraffinic feeds (paraffins-rich naphtha). The Advanced Catalytic Olefin (ACO) process uses a proprietary zeolite-type granular catalyst in a…
Cellulosic ethanol
Last month, Diversa Corp. (San Diego, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-546) and Celunol Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-547) signed a definitive merger agreement to create what is claimed as a new leader in the emerging cellulose-based ethanol industry. The combined company will be…
GTL/CTL cooperation
Last month, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; Beijing; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-549) and Syntroleum Corp. (Tulsa, Okla.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-550) signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint technology-development effort tor advanced natural gas-to-liqquids (GTL) and coal-to-liquids (CTL) technologies. Syntroleum will provide its…
Reducing PFOA
DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-553) has commercialized a patented process that removes more than 97% of trace levels of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), its homologues and direct precursors meeting the voluntary U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA; Washington, D.C.) 2010/15 PFOA Stewardship program…
Shaw-Saudi JV
Stone & Webster International, a business unit of the Shaw Group Inc. (Baton Rouge, La.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-554), has formed a joint venture with Sofcon Consulting Engineering Co. (AI Khobar, Saudi Arabia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-555). The JV, called Shaw Sofcon, combines the process technology…
We mourn the passing of a friend and colleague
Readers of this publication will be saddened to learn that Nicholas P. Chopey, Chemical Engineering's Editor-In-Chief, passed away February 26th at the age of 74 in Elizabeth, N.J. The cause was complications with lymphatic cancer. Mr. Chopey, who was known…