Whether the application is reactive extrusion, pharmaceutical manufacturing, compounding or plastics processing, finding the sweet spot where increased efficiency, flexibility and lower capital expenditures are well balanced is the holy grail of today’s extruder operations. Most industries that employ extrusion…
Edeniq Inc. (Visalia, Calif.; www.edeniq.com) announced progress in building demonstration facilities in Brazil and China that feature the company’s proprietary process for converting cellulosic biomass into industrial sugar for fermentation or catalytic conversion (diagram). In Brazil’s São Paulo state, Edeniq…
The chemical process industries (CPI) have experienced many benefits from the so-called shale-gas boom — recent years have seen an unprecedented rise in construction and expansion activity in the petrochemicals sector. Shown in Figure 1 is construction at the Freeport,…
CO2-to-syngas . . . Scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago ( www.uic.edu) have developed a catalytic system — molybdenum disulfide and an ionic liquid — to convert CO2 into synthesis gas, (syngas; a mixture of CO and…
Plant Watch Jacobs awarded contract for ExxonMobil projects in Baytown and Mont Belvieu August 12, 2014 — Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) was awarded a contract from ExxonMobil Chemical Co. to provide engineering, procurement and construction services as…
A microfluidic, paper-based analytical device (µPAD) — in conjunction with confirmation by a “lab-on-a-chip” analysis — was developed for detection of three explosives (trinitro aromatics) by a team from the University of Technology Sydney (Sydney, Australia; www.uts.edu.au), the University of…
An ultra-sensitive, low-cost and portable system for detecting mercury in water has been developed by University of Adelaide (Australia; www.adelaide.edu.au) researchers, in collaboration with the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain; www.urv.cat). Project leader Abel Santos, of the Adelaide’s…
JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (JX_NOE; Tokyo, Japan; www.noe.jx-group.co.jp) plans to construct the first commercial plant to utilize its high-severity fluid catalytic cracking (HS-FCC) technology, which has been demonstrated to generate higher ethylene and propylene yields compared to conventional…
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has been awarded a contract from Gemini HDPE LLC, a manufacturing joint venture between INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA (Ineos) and Sasol, to provide engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for a new high-density polyethylene (HDPE)…
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Ovadan-Depe near the capital of Ashgabad in Turkmenistan to launch the construction of a major plant focused on the conversion of natural gas into synthetic gasoline. The plant will be based on Haldor Topsøe…