In The News
Oxea completes specialty esters plant in Nanjing
Oxea (Oberhausen, Germany; www.oxea-chemicals.com) says that its specialty esters plant in Nanjing, China, is now mechanically complete. After a construction period of slightly more than fifteen months the new state-of-the-art plant is currently in the commissioning and startup phase. The…
ExxonMobil Chemical Co. begins multi-billion dollar expansion project in Baytown
ExxonMobil Chemical Co. (Houston; www.exxonmobile.com) says that it has started construction of a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker at its Baytown, Tex., complex and associated premium product facilities in nearby Mont Belvieu. This project, and major investments ExxonMobil has made to…
Lanxess opens new rubber-production line in Dormagen
Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has completed the expansion of its Baypren polychloroprene solid rubber production operations in Dormagen, Germany. Werner Breuers, member of the Lanxess AG Board of Management, and Jan Paul de Vries, head of Lanxess’ High Performance…
Novasep-MIE consortium to construct the first sorbitol production plant in Vietnam
Novasep (Pompey, France; www.novasep.com), a leading supplier of services and technologies to the life science industries, today announces that its Shanghai-based Asia Pacific subsidiary has secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Tay Ninh Chemical Industry (Tanichem), a…
Kobe Steel’s compressor company opens in Brazil
Kobe Steel, Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; www.kobelco.com) announces that its subsidiary company, Kobelco Machinery do Brazil Ltda., has begun full-scale marketing of nonstandard compressors in the South America. Based in Sao Paulo, Kobelco Machinery do Brazil (KMB) is Kobe Steel’s first…
Solvay opens R&I center at Korea’s Ewha Womans University
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has opened its new Research & Innovation (R&I) center at Ewha Womans University (Seoul, South Korea), putting the Group in a prime position to work closely with key Asian customers and universities to develop products…
Linde and BASF intend to jointly develop on-purpose butadiene technology
The Linde Group (Pullach, Germany; www.linde.com) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) intend to cooperate in developing and licensing processes for the on-purpose production of linear butenes and butadiene. BASF has developed process technology and catalysts as well as the…
Topsoe lays foundation for first ever integrated methanol and ammonia plant in Russia
On May 20, a foundation stone laying ceremony was held at the construction site of a new methanol ammonia co-production plant for the petrochemical company Shchekinoazot - one of the largest producers of chemicals in Russia. The new plant, which…
A process that recovers rare-earth elements from ‘urban mining’
Electrochem Technologies & Materials Inc. (Montreal, Canada; www.electrochem-technologies.com) has recently patented a process for recovering rare-earth elements (REEs) from mercury phosphor powders — a byproduct from recyclers of fluorescent lamps and light bulbs. This technology offers a sound and profitable…
Using algae to make beta-1,3- glucan
With a separate algae-based technology, Algal Scientific has invented a sterile fermentation process for making beta-1,3-glucan from algae that has lower costs than those associated with fermenting the molecule with yeast. Beta-1,3-glucan is a polysaccharide that boosts immune-system function in…