Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) has received a contract from Minera Chinalco Peru S.A. to perform a feasibility study for the expansion of its Toromocho copper mining facilities in the Morococha District of Peru. Officials did not disclose…
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com) says that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract by OJSC Gazpromneft Moscow Refinery to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) and design documentation in accordance with Russian…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay) and Ineos AG Rolle, Switzerland; www.ineos.com) have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to combine their European chlorvinyls activities in a proposed 50-50 joint venture (JV). The combination would form a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer…
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced today that it was awarded a contract by The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) to execute a significant portion of its U.S. Gulf Coast investments. Fluor’s scope includes the engineering, procurement and construction…
Last month, Air Products (Allentown, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) announced that it has licensed its proprietary adsorption-based, monomer recovery process to custom process equipment supplier Cryo Technologies (Allentown, Pa.; www.cryotechnologies.com). The hybrid Air Products technology combines a partial condensation unit with a…
Increasing production of crude oil from shale deposits in the U.S. and oil sands in Canada offers North American petroleum refiners opportunities to access cost-advantaged feedstock. However, shifting product demand and hurdles in transportation logistics, along with technical issues associated…
A team of researchers from Novasep (Pompey, France; www.novasep.com) has discovered and characterized the explosive properties of the so-called Togni reagent II and intermediates at the Novasep Leverkusen site in Germany. Invented by professor Antonio Togni at the Laboratory of…
Plant Watch Neste Jacobs to expand enzyme production plant in Finland April 5, 2013 — Neste Jacobs Oy (Porvoo, Finland; www.nestejacobs.com) has signed a contract to expand an enzyme plant operated by Roal Oy (Rajamäki, Finland; www.roal.fi). Enzymes produced at…
Last month, Krohne Messtechnik GmbH (Duisburg, Germany; www.krohne.com) launched SmartSens, the first family of two-wire, loop-powered analytical sensors with integrated transmitter technology. Prior to this, analytical sensors have required an external proprietary transmitter onsite to deliver the sensor signals to…
Naomi Shibasaki-Kitagawa at Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan; www.che.tohoku.ac.jp/~rpel/) has developed a continuous reactor for making biodiesel fuel from low-quality waste, such as cooking oil. Her production process uses an expanded-bed reactor packed with an anion-exchange resin that has both catalytic…