Ascend Performance Materials (Houston) has purchased Eurostar Engineering Plastics, a France-based compounder with a broad portfolio of flame-retardant engineered plastics and expertise in halogen-free formulations. “Eurostar’s experience in compounded polyamides fits well within our own portfolio and manufacturing capabilities,” said…
Neste (Espoo, Finland; www.neste.com) announced that it has acquired a minority stake in Alterra Energy, an innovative chemical recycling technology company. Neste’s equity investment supports Alterra Energy’s expansion. The collaboration between the companies will include joint technology development and global…
Yara International ASA (Oslo, Norway) has entered into an agreement with Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) and the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) on 31 December 2020 to divest its full ownership interest in the Libyan Norwegian Fertiliser Company (LIFECO). Yara’s…
Saipem S.p.A. (San Donato Milanese, Italy), leading an equally shared joint venture with Clough, has reached the EPC agreement with Perdaman Chemical and Fertilizers Pty Ltd for the development of the Burrup Urea Project. It consists of a Urea Fertilizer…
A groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, dubbed CAMEO (Closed-Loop Autonomous System for Materials Exploration), rapidly identified a potentially useful new material — a germanium-antimony-tellurium alloy (Ge4Sb6Te7) that is optimized for phase-change applications in data storage and photonic-switching devices. Tasked with…
Typically, the production of fuel-grade chemicals, such as butanol, from biomass fermentation processes involves low-yield batch processes and high energy costs. Now, researchers from Imperial College London (ICL; www.imperial.ac.uk), in partnership with bp plc (London; www.bp.com), have demonstrated a new…
MDI Production Late last year, Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.covestro.com) started up a pilot plant for the production of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) based on the innovative AdiP (adiabatic-isothermal phosgenation) technology at its Brunsbüttel site. The new technology promises to…
Titanium dioxide is well known as a photocatalyst, and is especially promising for degrading organic-based contaminant molecules in wastewater. Researchers from China and Australia have reported, in a recent issue of the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, that controlling…
A new technique for making less-expensive, more-efficient biological enzyme hybrids could have widespread applications, including in water recycling, drug manufacturing and molecular biology. The technique, developed by a team from Australia and the U.S., involves using a vortex fluidic device…
A Korean team has proposed an approach for passive radiative cooling. The team, which includes professors Junsuk Rho and Jin Kon Kim of Pohang Universiy of Science and Technology (Pohang, South Korea; www.postech.ac.kr) and professor Heon Lee of Korea University…