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Making more from mining water with electrowinning

A new electrowinning process is being field-trialed at the Prieska copper-zinc mine operated by Orion Minerals Ltd. (Melbourne, Australia; www.orionminerals.com.au) in South Africa, which will enable the production of valuable products, including calcium, magnesium, iron and others, from contaminated mine…

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Pump Troubleshooting Using Video Analysis

By allowing maintenance professionals to visualize vibration on entire pump systems, video vibration analysis and motion magnification can help to rapidly diagnose vibration issues Video vibration analysis, and motion magnification in particular, is democratizing complex system-level vibration testing by making…

Driving Decarbonization at BASF’s Schwarzheide Production Site

At brownfield operating sites, energy-efficiency gains can be realized by modernizing power-generation equipment. Ideally, such projects can take place without fully shutting off power or halting plant operations Over the last two years, virtually every major chemical producer across the…

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Business News Roundup: December 2022

Plant Watch Solvay resumes soda-ash expansion in Wyoming November 11, 2022 — Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) plans to resume the construction of its soda-ash capacity expansion in Green River, Wyo. The investment totals around $200 million, and the expansion…

Covestro starts up NDI plant in Thailand

Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) recently started up the production of Naphthylen-Diisocyanate (NDI) for the Vulkollan raw material at a newly built plant in its Map Ta Phut site in Thailand. The groundbreaking of the plant happened almost exactly two years…

Invista inaugurates adiponitrile plant at Shanghai Chemical Industry Park

Invista (Wichita, Kan.) announced that INVISTA Nylon Chemicals (China) Co. held the inauguration ceremony for its new adiponitrile (ADN) plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP). Being a critical part of INVISTA’s integrated nylon 6,6 value chain, the plant,…

LG Chem to build $3-billion cathode plant in Tennessee

LG Chem (Seoul, South Korea) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the state of Tennessee to establish a new cathode manufacturing facility in Clarksville with an investment of more than $3 billion. The new plant in…

BASF Coatings inaugurates Surface Treatment site in China

The Surface Treatment global business unit of BASF’s Coatings division, operating under the Chemetall brand, announced the inauguration of its state-of-the-art surface treatment production site in Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province, China. Spanning across 60,000 square meters, the Pinghu site is…

Mitsui Chemicals announces demonstration facility for new carbon-fiber manufacturing process

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo) and Microwave Chemical Co. Ltd. (Suita, Japan) announced that they have decided to set up a new demonstration facility within Mitsui Chemicals’ Nagoya Works. The facility will demonstrate basic technology relating to the manufacture of eco-friendly…

LyondellBasell is evaluating propylene capacity expansion near Houston

LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) announced it is evaluating the expansion of its propylene production capacity at its Channelview Complex near Houston, TX. The potential expansion would involve building a new propylene facility using LyondellBasell's existing technology to convert…