Waste-to-ethanol plant on pace for mid-2012 operation
Impending standards requiring that cellulosic ethanol be used in gasoline blending have focused attention on…
Commentary
A window into kettle reboiler secrets
Thermosiphon reboilers are the new standard in petroleum refineries and chemical plants. Nevertheless, approximately 50%…
In The News
Chementator
U.S. production is scheduled for a critical metal
China produces about 98% of the world’s electrolytic manganese metal (EMM), a vital ingredient used…
Slash sewage-sludge volumes with this add-on digester
A 60% reduction in the sludge volume was achieved at the sewage treatment plant of…
A fast way to recover CO2
A rapid pressure-swing-adsorption (rPSA) system to separate carbon dioxide from fluegas is being developed by…
A high-performance electrode material for lithium-ion batteries
A huge market for lithium ion batteries is expected to develop as car makers move…
October Chementator Briefs
Renewable jet fuel Houston-based bioenergy company Terrabon Inc. (www.terrabon.com) has been awarded a $9.6-million,…
Making crude oil from coal, without mining or combustion
An underground coal-to-liquids (UCTL) technology is undergoing pilot testing at Oak Park, near Melbourne Australia,…
A new approach to maintaining tubular heat exchangers
At the 2nd Annual ChemInnovations Conference and Expo (Houston; September 13–15), Hemi-O Technologies LLC (Corpus…
Dewatering enzymes boost ethanol production efficiency
A technique that improves the efficiency of ethanol plants by lowering the cost of dewatering…
A new heterogeneous catalyst for low-temperature VOC decomposition
Professor Yuki Taniguchi at the Chemicals Research Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan, www.res.titech.ac.jp/~gosei/taniguchi/index.html) has…
Business News
Tecnimont & Stamicarbon: New contract for fertilizer project in Egypt
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that its main operating company Tecnimont S.p.A. (Rome, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.it) has…
Dow and Davy license LP Oxo Technology to Wison (Nanjing) Clean Energy
Davy Process Technology Ltd. (DPT; London, U.K.; www.davyprotech.com), a Johnson Matthey company, and The Dow…
Toyo awarded energy-optimization project at Sabic
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp) was awarded an energy optimization project for one…
Oxea to build its first production plant in China
Oxea GmbH (Oberhausen, Germany; www.oxea-chemicals.com) says it will build its first chemical plant for the production…
CB&I: Contract for sulfuric-acid-akylation unit in China
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) announced today that Lummus Technology has been awarded a contract…
CB&I awarded technology contracts in the Philippines
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded contracts by Petron to supply sulfur recovery,…
Lummus Technology lands contract in China
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) announced today that Lummus Technology has been awarded a contract…
Lanxess and BioAmber partner to produce renewable, phthalate-free plasticizers
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) plans to produce phthalate-free plasticizers from bio-based succinic acid from…
New Topsøe methanol plant started up in Russia
On October 20, the official ceremony of commissioning of the new 1,350 metric tons per…
Wacker and Dow Corning open expanded pyrogenic-silica plant in China
Today, Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) and Dow Corning Corp. (Midland, Mich.; www.dowcorning.com) officially…
Cobalt Technologies and Rhodia to develop bio-butanol market in Latin America
Cobalt Technologies (Mountain View, Calif.; www.cobalttech.com) and Rhodia (Paris, France; www.rhodia.com) today announced the execution…
Siemens builds a new automation-engineering factory in China
The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany; www.siemens.com) is further expanding its position in the…
Air Liquide: Two new ASUs for Korean steelmaker
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) has signed a contract with Posco E&C, the Engineering and…
UOP: Propylene and isobutane production technology for Yantai Wanhua Polyurethanes
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill: www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, has been selected by Yantai Wanhua…
Uhde commissions Europe’s biggest urea plant
Europe’s biggest urea plant comes on-stream: ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu) contractors have supplied…
M&G Group partners with TPG to form Beta Renewables
Gruppo Mossi and Ghisolfi (M&G; Milan, Italy; www.gruppomg.com), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Chemtex (Wilmington, N.C.;…
Envergent Technologies and Green Fuel Nordic: Biomass processing in Finland
Envergent Technologies LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.envergenttech.com), a Honeywell company, has signed a memorandum of…
Lanxess acquires Unitex Chemical
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is strengthening its global asset base and product portfolio for…
Technip: Specialty lubricant-base-stock facility in the U.S.
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) was awarded a contract by ExxonMobil Chemical for a grassroots lubricant-base-stock…
Air Liquide; Further investment in Bulgaria
Bulgaria’s economy has registered steady growth in recent years that relies mostly on industry. Non-ferrous…
Wacker starts polysilicon production at its Nünchritz site
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) has begun producing hyperpure polycrystalline silicon at its Nünchritz…
Coal-to-Liquids complex in Mozambique to apply Uhde’s Prenflo PDQ process
ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu) and SGC Energia (SGCE) have entered into a master…
First plants of BASF-YPC expansion in Nanjing come onstream
The first production facilities in the $1.4-billion expansion of BASF-YPC Co(Nanjing, China; www.basf-ypc.com.cn) have now…
Fluor wins FEED contract for new Canadian refinery
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) was awarded a contract by North West Redwater Partnership to…
Evonik to build hydrogen peroxide plant in China
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) will build a new production plant for hydrogen peroxide…
MHI lands large-scale fertilizer-plant order in Malaysia
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.mhi.co.jp), jointly with APEX Energy Sdn. Bhd. of…
Solvay commissions the world’s largest H2O2 plant in Thailand
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) announced today that MTP HPJV (Thailand) Ltd, its hydrogen peroxide…
Axens’ technologies for Irak Nassiriya new refinery
The State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP), part of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, has…
Lanxess strengthens commitment to Brazilian automotive sector
Lanxess AG (Levewrkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is strengthening its commitment to Brazil with three major new…
Resinall Rütgers Resins acquires Neville Chemical Europe
Resinall Rütgers Resins GmbH (RRR; Duisburg, Germany) — a joint venture (JV) between Rütgers Novares…
Technical & Practical
Clarifying Liquid Filtration
There are various reasons that make filtering necessary in processes. The raw materials might…
Making Pump Maintenance Mandatory
One of the key components in the operational success of chemical process industries (CPI) facilities…
Characterizing Powder Flow
To confidently design, operate and troubleshoot solids-handling processes, engineers need to characterize powder flow in…
Determining Packing Height With Accuracy
Equilibrium stage simulations are the nearly universal process design tool for mass transfer columns that…
Facts at Your Fingertips
Steam generator operation and thermodynamics
A well-operated steam generator can save money. In a steam-driven turbine system, water is heated…