Genencor (Palo Alto, Calif.; www.genencor.com), a division of Danisco A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.danisco.com) and Brain AG (Zwingenberg, Germany; www.brain-biotech.de), have joined forces in the field of the bio-based fermentative production of industrially relevant biochemicals from renewable raw materials. Genencor will…
The technology group The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) and its consortium partner Samsung Engineering Co. (Korea: www.samsungengineering.co.kr) have been awarded the contract to build a turnkey ethylene plant in Dahej, India. The plant has been commissioned by the Indian…
In the course of the closing end of December 2008, Süd-Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.sud-chemie.com) has acqured the ceramics filter business, which operates under the name of Hi-Tech, of the Cookson Group Plc. (London). Hi-Tec (Alfred Station, N.Y.) develops and…
Kazakhstan’s JSC Trade House KazMunaiGaz has selected Axens’ (Rueil-Malmaison Cedex – France; www.axens.net) ParamaX Technology Suite for the first major aromatics complex to be located at the Atyrau Refinery in Kazakhstan. The Atyrau refinery processes up to 5.0 million metric…
GEA Ibérica, the Spanish subsidiary of the GEA Group AG (Bochum, Germany; www.geagroup.com), has acquired Caldemón Ibérica S.A., a leading manufacturer of shell-and-tube heat exchangers and surface condensers, commonly used in solar thermal power plants. In 2008, the company expects…
Hoerbiger Holding AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.hoerbiger.com) has acquired Altronic, Inc. (Girard, Ohio), effective January 1, 2009. Hoerbiger will integrate the company into the Business Division Engine Solutions, and therefore into the Strategic Business Unit Compression Technology. Altronic has locations in…
Plant Watch Construction of AkzoNobel’s unit for ethylene amines in China progresses December 17, 2008 — AkzoNobel Functional Chemicals (Amersfoort, The Netherlands) is installing production capacity for ethylene amines in Ningbo, China, including ethylene oxide and monoethanolamine (MEA). Startup of…
Researchers at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s (DOE; Washington, D.C.) Ames Laboratory (www.ameslab.gov) and Iowa State University (both of Ames, Iowa) have developed a hard, smooth coating that can be applied to industrial equipment, such as pumps, gears and cutting…
Bioethanol Last month, an energy-saving plant for producing bioethanol started up in Norrköping, Sweden, for Lantmännen Agroetanol AB. When operating at full capacity, the plant will produce 470,000 L/d of bioethanol from grain (mostly wheat), making it the largest bioethanol…
Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com/energy) has installed a turnkey photovoltaic (PV) plant on the roof of the Siemens Healthcare X-ray systems manufacturing plant in Forchheim, Germany. After a planning and construction time of less than three months, the unit went…