A commercial debut for microwave-assisted polymerization
A device for the mass production of lactic acid oligomers, polylactic acid (PLA) and other…
In The News
Chementator
Demonstration for a wood-to-fuel via DME route
Haldor Topsøe (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) will demonstrate a new technology that converts wood to liquid…
January Chementator briefs
Aiding crystal growth Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; Upton, N.Y.; www.bnl.gov) have patented…
Recovering energy from fluegas
Alcoa of Australia (www.alcoa.com.au) has developed a process to recover sensible and latent heat from…
Large-diameter reverse osmosis product lowers cost and reduces footprint
Koch Membrane Systems Inc. (KMS; Wilmington, Mass.; www.kochmembrane.com) recently unveiled large-diameter reverse osmosis (RO) elements…
‘Super Boiler' achieves higher efficiency through the recovery of waste heat
An advanced heat recovery system (AHRS) that boosts the fuel-to-steam efficiency of firetube boilers by…
A new electrochemical process for making K2FeO4
A new process for producing the oxidizing agent potassium ferrate (VI) (K2FeO4) can routinely generate…
Sound water treatment delivers environmental and economic benefits
A two-year collaboration between Ashland Hercules Water Technologies (AHWT; Wilmington, Del.), a commercial unit of…
Commercialization is set for a new distillation technology
A new distillation device developed by UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) will make its…
These nanotube membranes promise superior performance for less cost
Carbon nanotube membranes are being developed for water desalination and carbon dioxide sequestration by Porifera…
A glucaric acid process moves closer to scaleup
An economical method for producing glucaric acid from glucose was successfully scaled up three-fold to…
Business News
AkzoNobel invests in U.K. R&D site
AkzoNobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) is investing almost €10 million to further boost the…
Topsøe wins contract with PetroPeru
Haldor Topsøe (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) has signed a contract supplying technologies for three new plants…
Outotec to deliver precious-metals plant in China
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has signed a contract with Baiyin Non Ferrous Group for the…
Praxair starts up new plant in Costa Rica
Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) has started up its new air-separation plant in San Jose,…
KBR to license Veba Combi Cracker Technology
KBR, Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has signed a Collaboration Agreement with BP (www.bp.com) to promote, market,…
Lanxess builds new plant in Germany
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is building a new chemical plant at its site in…
Artisan and Aonix merge to become Atego
ArtisanSoftware Tools and Aonix have merged to create a new, stronger independent force in the…
Axens and Headwaters form DCL alliance
Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) and Headwaters Inc. (South Jordan, Utah; www.headwaters.com) have signed an agreement to…
Total and ConocoPhillips sanction Phase 2 of the Surmont Project
Total S.A. (Paris, France; www.total.com ) and ConocoPhillips (Houston; www.conocophillips.com) announce the sanction of the Surmont…
ABB Safety Execution Center: TÜV certified
ABB (Wickliffe, Ohio; www.abb.com) says its Safety Execution Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina has been certified…
Emerson & Meridium: asset management
Emerson Process Management (Baar, Switzerland; www.emersonprocess.eu) and Meridium Inc. (Roanoke, Virginia; www.meridium.com) announce a partnership to…
Lanxess restarts new rubber-facility project in Singapore
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has brought forward its plans to build a new butyl…
BASF-Linde cooperation for fluegas CO2 capture
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Linde-KCA-Dresden GmbH (LKCA; Dresden, Germany), a Linde Group (Munich,…
BASF starts up chelating agent plant
After 18 months of construction, the new plant expansion for BASF’s (www.basf.com) chelating agent Trilon…
Uhde to supply HCl- electrolysis plant to Yantai Juli
Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu) has been awarded an engineering and procurement contract for the…
Vinythai prepares construction of its epichlorohydrin plant
Solvay SA (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) says it has recently closed the sale to its Thai…
Lanxess acquires PTAP product line
Specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has acquired the Nipacide PTAP product line…
Intergraph acquires COADE
Intergraph (Atlanta, Ga.; www.intergraph.com) has acquired COADE Holdings Inc. (Houston; www.coade.com), provider of CAESAR II,…
Technip lands FEED contract in Venezuela
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) has been awarded, by Polimerica, a reimbursable contract to perform the front-end…
Cognis opens new affiliate in Malaysia
On January 1, 2010, specialty chemicals supplier Cognis (Monheim, Germany; www.cognis.com) opened an affiliate in…
RWE Power and Brain join forces to utilize CO2
To convert carbon dioxide into microbial biomass or biomolecules: such is the goal of a…
Borealis invests in semi-commercial catalyst plant, and more plant watch and mergers news
December 14, 2009 — Borealis (Vienna, Austria; http://www.borealisgroup.com) has announced plans for a €75-million investment…
Technical & Practical
A ‘Sound’ Solution to Material Flow Problems
Particulate buildup and other material flow problems are common hurdles wherever dry materials find application…
Updating the Rules For Pipe Sizing
Pipe sizing calculations include certain values that are time dependent, such as costs. While some…
Capital And Production Costs: Improving the Bottom Line
The chemical process industries (CPI) invest large amounts of capital each year and spend even…
Wastewater Treatment: Energy-Conservation Opportunities
Typical wastewater-treatment plants (WWTP) — both industrial and municipal — consume large amounts of energy,…
Pressure Relief Requirement During External Pool-Fire Contingency
Relief system design is an important engineering activity throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). The…
Facts at Your Fingertips
Low-Pressure Measurement
Because of the behavior of materials under vacuum, including lowered boiling points, low-pressure operations are…