Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has commissioned a new CO2 concentration unit at its Newcastle production site in South Africa. Lanxess has invested some €40 million to build the unit, which was completed in just 19 months. The company operates…
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) announced plans to build, own and operate a new liquid nitrogen production facility in West Texas to serve the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin. The new facility, to have an approximate…
As part of its ongoing transformation, Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has signed an agreement to acquire privately-held Chemlogics (Paso Robles, Calif.) for a total cash consideration of $1.345 billion. Adding the U.S.-based company to Solvay's Novecare business unit will…
Teijin Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; www.teijin.co.jp) imited announced today that it has established a joint venture with South Korean chemical producer SK Chemicals to develop and sell polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resins and compounds in Ulsan, South Korea. Construction of a 12,000-ton/yr…
The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W; Charlotte, N.C.; www.babcock.com) announced today that its subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG), has signed an agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance to perform full front-end engineering and design (FEED)…
JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) announced today that a contract has been signed between Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP (Chevron Phillips Chemical) and JGC and Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for the company's…
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) and Zachry Industrial (San Antonio, Tex.; www.zhi.com), in a partnership called Gulf Coast Partners, have been awarded a substantial contract to design and build two polyethylene (PE) plants for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP (Chevron Phillips…
The research group of Yasuhiro Uozumi and Yoichi Yamada at Riken (Saitama, Japan; www.riken.jp), in collaboration with professor Audrey Moores of McGill University (Montreal, Que.), has developed a highly efficient catalyst for performing hydrogenation reactions, which are important in the…
A pilot plant will be established at the University of Newcastle (Newcastle, Australia; www.newcastle.edu.au) to test a new technology for the sequestration of CO2 through mineral carbonation — the reaction with magnesium silicate minerals, such as serpentine, to form mineral…
Fermenting sugar is at the heart of many bio-based chemical and biofuel processes, but obtaining sugars from cellulosic biomass at low cost is an ongoing challenge. A new process using a reusable solid catalyst is capable of breaking down a…