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Degussa name change

The Chemical Business Area of Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6900-542) is the new identity of what was formerly known as Degussa. The other two business areas of Evonik Industries are energy and real estate. The German coal-mining operations will…

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Ni from South Pacific

Lanxess (Leverkusen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6900-543) has won a large contract to supply ion-exchange resins to Goro Nickel S.A.S. (Noumé, New Caldedonia), which will use the resins in future mining operations. Goro Nickel will start Ni production at the mine in 2009.…

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October Plant Watch & Mergers

Plant Watch Liheng adds largest continuous polymerization capacity for PA6 to China September 25, 2007 — Liheng (Changle) Polyamide Technology Co. has contracted Lurgi Zimmer GmbH to build a polyamide-6 (PA6) plant in the province of Fujian. The plant will…

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ABB divests Lummus

ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-546) has agreed to sell its Lummus Global business to Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CB&I; The Woodlands, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-547) for an enterprise value of $950 million on a debt and cash free basis, subject to…

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A new spin on vacuum degassing of polymer melts

Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH (Bad Oeynhausen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-541) has developed a patented technology that significantly increases the surface exchange of molten polymers during vacuum degassing — a technique used to remove residual water and monomers during polymer processing. Compared with conventional…

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Butyl rubber

ExxonMobil Chemical (Houston, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-543) has commercialized a new process for making butyl rubber at its Notre Dame de Gravenchon plant in France. The company declines to give details on the process, but says it is more energy-efficient than the…

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Putting ionic liquids and CO2 to work in upgrading low-temperature heat sources

BASF Corp. (Florham Park, N.J.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-536) and CogniTek Management Systems, Inc. (Northfield, Ill.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-537) have signed a cooperative agreement to study the combined use of supercritical (SC) CO2 and ionic liquids (Ils) as a potentially efficient way to utilize low-temperature…

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Ceramic ferrules

Blasch Precision Ceramics (Albany, N.Y.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-548) has commercialized one-piece hex-head ferrules made of 99.6% alumina for applications in steam-methane reformers. The high-purity alumina is becoming popular as an alternative to high-grade metal alloys because it is virtually immune to chemical…

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CO2 capture

BP Alternative Energy (Sunbury, (U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-544) and Powerspan Corp. (Portsmouth, N.H.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-545) are collaborating to develop and commercialize Powerspan’s carbon dioxide capture technology, called ECO2. The agreement covers financial and technical support for pilot demonstration and commercial scaleup activities, including…

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Bending polymers imitate the beauty of nature

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Racah Institute of Physics (Israel; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6899-539) have succeeded in programming polymer sheets to bend and wrinkle by themselves into prescribed structures, such as domes, saddles and sombrero shapes (photo). Their work, described in…