A new PLA process makes its commercial debut
Earlier this year, the first polylactic acid (PLA) plant based on a new polymerization process…
Commentary
Packing must fail
For the first half of my career, I worked in a group that developed, designed…
In The News
Chementator
Nanosized zeolite catalyst shows promise for improving naphtha cracking
A naphtha-cracking process with improved yield, reduced coking and longer catalyst life is being developed…
Very rapid cooling enables a new way to produce magnesium
A carbothermal process for obtaining magnesium — developed by CSIRO (www.csiro.au) Light Metals Flagship (South…
Biobutanol to be produced at retrofitted ethanol plant
The first commercial-scale biobutanol plant using the Gevo Integrated Fermentation Technology (GIFT) process is set…
Adding gallium to biomass pyrolysis catalyst increases BTX yield
A new catalyst design, in which gallium atoms are integrated into the zeolite catalyst structure,…
Improved heavy-crude conversion process boosts diesel yields
A proprietary nanoscale catalyst and an updated engineering design have allowed higher conversion rates for…
A fine filter
Last month, W. L. Gore & Associates (Gore; Elkton, Md.; www.gore.com) introduced what is claimed…
March Chementator Briefs
Solar thermal power The first solar-thermal power plant in Southeast Asia fed its full output…
Composites that can enhance forward osmosis
Researchers from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Monash University (Clayton, Victoria, Australia; www.monash.edu), have reported…
This MOF selectively captures radioactive iodine
A challenge in recovering fissile material from spent nuclear fuel is separating radioactive components that…
A new PLA process makes its commercial debut
Earlier this year, the first polylactic acid (PLA) plant based on a new polymerization process…
Nanosized zeolite catalyst shows promise for improving naphtha cracking
A naphtha-cracking process with improved yield, reduced coking and longer catalyst life is being developed…
Composites that can enhance forward osmosis
Researchers from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Monash University (Clayton, Victoria, Australia; www.monash.edu), have reported…
Biobutanol to be produced at retrofitted ethanol plant
The first commercial-scale biobutanol plant using the Gevo Integrated Fermentation Technology (GIFT) process is set…
Using chemistry to protect structural steel during a fire
A technique for protecting structural steel from fire using the endothermic decomposition of magnesium hydroxide…
Adding gallium to biomass pyrolysis catalyst increases BTX yield
A new catalyst design, in which gallium atoms are integrated into the zeolite catalyst structure,…
A new roasting process slated for commercialization
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has introduced a new partial roasting process to purify copper…
Improved heavy-crude conversion process boosts diesel yields
A proprietary nanoscale catalyst and an updated engineering design have allowed higher conversion rates for…
This MOF selectively captures radioactive iodine
A challenge in recovering fissile material from spent nuclear fuel is separating radioactive components that…
Business News
Toyo awarded ethylene plant contract for Ethydco
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been jointly awarded, with ENPPI — an…
Siemens to provide IPS composting system in China
Guodian Northeast Environmental Protection Industry Group, Ltd. has selected Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany;…
GEA builds milk powder plant in New Zealand
GEA Group AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has received an order worth more than €70 million…
DSM to launch new line of bio-based materials via Brazilian partnership
Royal DSM N.V. (Heerlen, the Netherlands; www.dsm.com) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding between its…
WorleyParsons lands EPCM contract for major copper concentrator project
WorleyParsons Ltd. (North Sydney, Australia; www.worleyparsons.com) has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction management…
Samsung Engineering awarded EPC contract in Iraq
Samsung Engineering (Seoul, Korea; www.samsungengineering.co.kr) officially signed a contract, worth approximately $1 billion, with LUKOIL…
Air Products acquires Xebec’s adsorption technology
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has acquired advanced adsorption technology assets for its Generated…
Lucite International boosts MMA & MAA production in the U.S.
Lucite International, Inc. Memphis, Tenn.; www.luciteinternational.com) says that it is progressing with its investment to…
Intergraph introduces SmartPlant FreeView
Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, Ala.; www.intergraph.com) today released SmartPlant FreeView, a free .VUE viewer that allows…
Jacobs wins new acid plant contract for Teck's Trail smelter
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) has received a contract from Teck Metals Ltd.…
Evonik breaks ground on new organics production facility in Shanghai
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.om) broke ground to mark the official start of the…
Messer starts production of Kr and Xe in China
Messer (Bad Soden/Frankfurt, Germany; www.messergroup.com) the largest privately run industrial gases specialist, has started up…
Siemens delivers another wet air oxidation system to Sinopec
Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany; www.siemens.com/water) is providing another Zimpro wet air oxidation (WAO)…
MoU to market tri-generation, stationary fuel-cell power plants
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) and FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.fuelcellenergy.com) have signed…
GEA acquires Swiss specialist in aseptic valves
GEA Group AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has acquired Aseptomag (Kirchberg, Switzerland), one of the world’s…
Dover's Pump Solutions Group acquires Maag Group
Pump Solutions Group (PSG), a business unit within the Engineered Systems segment of Dover Corp. (Downer’s…
MHI Receives Large-scale CO2 recovery plant order for Quatar
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.mhi.co.jp) has received an order for a large-scale…
Air Products wins long-term supply contract for Xinlianxin in China
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has signed a long-term contract with Henan Xinlianxin Fertilizer…
Technip awarded an engineering contract for Petronas’ Rapid project in Malaysia
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract by Petronas…
Jacobs wins contract for Vale's new acid plant in Canada
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) has received a contract from Vale Canada Ltd.…
Linde to supply air gases to Chinese chemicals producer
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has been selected to supply air gases to chemicals…
Outotec to acquire all shares in Numcore, an innovator of 3D-imaging measurement technology
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) strengthens its process control technologies by acquiring all shares in…
Metso acquires a globe valve technology company in South Korea
Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso.com) strengthens its offering for customers in oil-and-gas and power industries…
Outotec and Zambia's Kansanshi Mining sign sulfuric acid technology deal
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has signed a contract with the Zambia-based mining company Kansanshi…
Cobalt Technologies demonstrates its pretreatment process for making biobutanol
Cobalt Technologies Mountain View, Calif.; www.cobalttech.com), announced the achievement of major progress toward commercial scale…
Topsøe lands another SNG-plant contract in China
The new coal-to-SNG plant for the Yinan Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) Project will convert locally…
Petronas and BASF move ahead with expansion of partnership in Malaysia
Petronas (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; www.petronas.com.my) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) have taken the next…
Wacker expands polymer site in China
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) is expanding its Chinese polymer activities by investing around…
Freudenberg Filtration Technologies in India acquires Pyramid Filters
Freudenberg Filtration Technologies India Pvt. Ltd (Pune, India) has signed an agreement to acquire the…
Hamworthy lands breakthrough liquefaction contract for biogas plant
Hamworthy Oil & Gas Systems (Poole, Dorset, U.K.; www.hamworthy.com) has secured its first contract for…
Technical & Practical
Thermodynamic Analysis Of Electrolyte Systems
Thermodynamics cannot yield any information about the intermediate states of a given reacting system. These…
Distillation Optimization By Vapor Recompression
Distillation is one of the most extensively used operations in the chemical process industries (CPI).…
Condition Monitoring for Rotating Machinery
Rotating machines, such as pumps, compressors, gas turbines, steam turbines and electric motors, play crucial…
Facts at Your Fingertips
Selecting Two- and Four-wire Magnetic Flowmeters
To optimize process control and overall plant performance, magnetic flowmeters (mag meters) are the most…