Mobile Navigation

Chemical Engineering

Chemtrade to sell two specialty chemical businesses to Vertellus

Vertellus (Indianapolis, Ind.) announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain businesses of Toronto-based Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund. This acquisition will expand Vertellus’ capabilities to manufacture and develop specialty ingredients in high-growth healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Under the…

Evonik plans to divest manufacturing site in Lülsdorf, Germany

Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany) intends to divest its Lülsdorf site in the medium term. More detailed plans will be drawn up by spring 2022. The aim is to transfer the entire site to a new owner, although the sale…

Altivia sells water treatment business to Usalco

Usalco, LLC (Baltimore, Md.), a producer of water treatment and industrial chemicals, announced that it has acquired the water treatment business of Altivia (Houston). Altivia’s water treatment business is a leading manufacturer of specialty chemicals for municipal water and wastewater…

Implementing digital transformation

The recently concluded 5th annual Connected Plant Conference (CPC; www.connectedplantconference.com), held in Austin, Tex., illustrated both the real promise of Industry 4.0 digital tools to improve operational efficiency and safety at chemical process industries (CPI) facilities, as well as the…

Field Calibration of DP Flowmeters: Best Practices

Improved understanding of differential pressure (DP) flowmeter operation, along with best calibration practices, reduces maintenance errors Utilizing an orifice plate installed in a pipe and accurately measuring the differential pressure (DP) to calculate flow is one of most common methods…

A flexible, origami-based fuel cell

Until now, manufacturing polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) that are small, light and capable of mechanical movement has been challenging using conventional methods. PEMFCs are composed of end plates, bipolar plates, gaskets, membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) and other assembly parts, of…

Proof-Testing Level-Measurement Devices in Storage-Tank Safety Systems

Storage tanks containing hazardous materials require safety instrumented systems (SIS) to prevent overfills. Digital technology in the latest level-measurement devices used in SIS enables remote proof-testing, which provides significant advantages At industrial facilities with tanks containing hazardous, flammable or explosive…

A solvent-free process makes battery electrodes

Conventional processes for manufacturing battery electrodes use toxic solvents and require a lot of space and energy. In contrast, DRYtraec — a new dry-coating process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology (IWS; Dresden, Germany; www.iws.fraunhofer.de) —…

Chementator briefs

'New food' GEA AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.gea.com) has received a contract from Novozymes A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) for a turnkey fitting of a major new plant to produce plant-based proteins for the plant-based food industry. The high double-digit million-euro order…

Two new semiconductor-based nanomaterials synthesized for the first time

The latest generations of computer chips are only a few nanometers in size and are becoming ever more energy-saving and powerful as a result of progressive miniaturization. Since the etching processes traditionally used in chip production are increasingly reaching their…