Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso.com) will deliver comprehensive automation and safety solutions for two greenfield plants being built by Neste Oil Corp. in Singapore and in Rotterdam, Netherlands. As agreed with the customer, the values of the orders will not…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has entered into a final agreement for the acquisition of 100% of Alexandria Sodium Carbonate Company (ASCC) from Holding Company for Chemical Industries (HCCI), an Egyptian State-owned holding company. The operation is part of Solvay’s…
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) plans to construct a new polysilicon production plant at its Nunchritz site (Saxony, Germany) with a nominal annual capacity of 10,000 metric tons (m.t.). The first batch of polysilicon from this “capacity expansion phase 9”…
Liberty Engineering (Hamburg, N.Y.; www.libertypsa.com) has developed a bioremediation system that fully removes carcinogens from soil in 90 days. The process is based on microbial oxidation of organic compounds by petrophyllic pseudonomads in an oxygen-rich environment. The bacteria are specifically…
QuantumSphere, Inc. (Santa Ana, Calif.; www.qsinano.com) has filed a key patent for technology it has developed, which extends the capacity of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries up to five times, thus offering the potential to increase the operating life of portable consumer…
Last month, Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) launched Levotan X-Cel, an polymer mixture based on expandable microcapsules, for retannage in leather processing. With a diameter of 5 – 20 µm, the microcapsules are small enough to penetrate into the collagen…
GEA Group AG (Bochum, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has decided to implement a multi-year investment program for its Mechanical Separation Division comprising a total volume of around 160-million euros. Besides being among the most cycle-resistant divisions within the GEA Group, the Mechanical…
The DuPont cellulosic ethanol joint venture (JV), DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE; Itasca, Ill.; www.dupontdanisco.com), has broken ground for its first pilot-scale biorefinery and state-of-the-art biofuels research and development facility in Vonore, Tenn. The JV has partnered with the…
Plant Watch LyondellBasell grants license for new plant in the Slovak Republic September 23, 2008 — Slovnaft Petrochemicals, s.r.o., a subsidiary of the MOL Group, has selected LyondellBasell’s Lupotech T technology for a new 220,000-metric tons per year (m.t./yr) low-density…
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL; Berkeley, Calif.; www.lbl.gov) has developed a new xenobiotics bioremediation system that can be used to treat contaminated soil and water. Whereas conventional bioelectrical remediation methods rely on the addition of chemicals to provide electron…