In The News
NPN to build $1.5-billion nitrogen-fertilizer plant in North Dakota
Northern Plains Nitrogen (NPN; Grand Forks, N.D.; www.northernplainsnitrogen.com) leaders announced their plans today to build and operate a $1.5-billion nitrogen-fertilizer production facility near Grand Forks, N.D. The world-scale production facility will include a 2,200-ton/d ammonia plant plus urea and urea-ammonium-nitrate (UAN)…
Jacobs receives another contract from Minera Chinalco
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…
Solvay and Ineos join forces to create a world-class PVC producer
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…
Foster Wheeler awarded FEED contract for a refinery upgrade in Russia
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…
Fluor wins contract for Dow U.S. Gulf Coast investments
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…
AkzoNobel and Solvay establish a partnership on renewable solvents; and more business news
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…
Sensors with a transmitter built in
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…
This biodiesel process requires no pre- or post-treatment
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…
Improved coating for hydraulic fracturing proppants
Two new coating products for sand proppants used in hydraulic fracturing operations in the oil and gas industry overcome the challenges of traditional phenolic coatings, which can leach environmentally hazardous chemicals. The coatings, developed by Preferred Sands LLC (Radnor, Pa.;…
One-pot synthesis of sugars from biomass
Researchers from the group of Atsushi Fukuoka at the Catalysis Research Center of Hokkaido University (Sapporo; www.cat.hokudai.ac.jp), and Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; Tokyo, both Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) have developed a new catalyst that efficiently decomposes biomass into sugars. The activated-carbon-based catalyst…