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Chemical Engineering

Saint-Gobain divests two glass-processing plants in Germany

Saint-Gobain (Courbevoie, France) announces the sale of Saint-Gobain Glassolutions Objekt-Center, which specializes in glass processing operations as part of the Glassolutions network in Germany, to the German privately-owned AEQUITA group based in Munich. This sale concerns twosites: Döring Berlin and…

Haldor Topsoe establishes focused green hydrogen organization to accelerate electrolysis business

Haldor Topsoe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark) announced that it has established a focused green hydrogen business to accelerate its electrolysis activities. The new green hydrogen organization is fully dedicated to accelerating all aspects of Topsoe’s business within electrolysis, including development of…

Lummus announces cooperation with Synthos for development of biobutadiene technology

Lummus Technology (Houston) announced that its Green Circle business and Synthos S.A. (Oswiecim, Poland) have started collaborating to commercialize Synthos’ biobutadiene technology. The first step of the commercialization program includes the development of a feasibility study for a biobutadiene plant…

Mitsubishi Chemical acquires film coating manufacturer Nakai Industrial

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; Tokyo) has acquired all the shares of Nakai Industrial Co., Ltd., (Kyoto, Japan), a film coating manufacturer, and converted the company into a consolidated subsidiary. Nakai Industrial is a comprehensive coating manufacturer that has built up…

Prime Polymer to build polypropylene plant in Japan

Prime Polymer Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo) and Idemitsu Kosan Co.,Ltd. (Tokyo), announced the decision to construct a new polypropylene manufacturing facility as part of its plans for a scrap-and-build-style restructuring of its production system.…

Improve aircraft fuel efficiency with ‘sharkskin’

Lufthansa Technik AG (Hamburg; www.lufthansa-technik.com) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) have developed a surface film, tradenamed AeroSHARK, that mimics the fine structure of a shark’s skin for reducing friction. The technology is to be rolled out on Lufthansa Cargo…

Converting woody biomass to intermediates allows carbon-negative products

Construction has begun on a market demonstration facility for manufacturing chloromethyl furfural (CMF) and hydrothermal carbon (HTC) from a variety of waste biomass feedstocks. With subsequent chemical transformation, these flexible intermediates can be converted into final products, such as polyethylene…

Chementator Briefs

Biomass Corn stover is among the major feedstocks for biorefineries, and can be converted to bioethanol. When corn stover contains moisture above certain levels, it can clog conveyers and chutes during processing, leading to operational problems and process stoppages. To…

Modular waste-to-energy system is cost-competitive at smaller scales

A newly launched modular waste-to-energy system is capable of delivering off-grid heat and power with competitive economics to a variety of locations, including military bases, remote sites and commercial installations, according to creator Enexor BioEnergy LLC (Franklin, Tenn.; www.enexor.com). Under…

High-temperature heat pump promises significant energy savings

Industrial heat pumps (diagram) are a relatively mature technology that converts low-temperature waste heat into a more usable heat at a higher temperature (above the “pinch point”). However, the technology has been limited to applications of up to 100°C. Now,…