In The News
Fluor to build Shell’s Quest carbon-capture facility in Canada
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced today that Shell selected the firm as its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for Shell’s carbon capture facility for its flagship carbon capture and storage (CCS) Quest project at the Athabasca Oil Sands…
BASF and CSM establish 50-50 JV for biobased succinic acid
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Purac (Diemen, The Netherlands), a subsidiary of CSM (www.csmglobal.com), are establishing a joint venture (JV) for the production and sale of biobased succinic acid. The company will be named Succinity GmbH and will be…
Toyo awarded a urea production technology contract from Bolivia
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a urea synthesis and granulation technologies supply contract with a capacity of 2,100 ton/d for Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), Bolivian national oil company in Carrasco, Cochabamba, Bolivia. The scope…
Braskem Idesa awards large EPC contract for the Ethylene XXI project
Braskem Idesa S.A.P.I. awarded to a joint venture (JV) formed by Odebrecht (40%), Technip (40%) and ICA Fluor (20%) a contract worth more than $2.7 billion (around €2.1 billion) for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a petrochemical complex…
Stamicarbon to supply HP equipment for urea project in Bangladesh
Stamicarbon B.V. (Sittard, The Netherlands; www.stamicarbon.com), the Licensing and IP Center of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., (Milan, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.it) has signed a contract with China Chengda Engineering Co. (Chengda) for the supply of high-pressure (HP) proprietary equipment for the Shahjalal Fertilizer…
BP agrees to sell Carson refinery and more business news
Plant Watch Solvay increases fluorinated-derivatives production capacity in France September 6, 2012 — Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) is investing over €10 million to double the capacity of the fluorinated aliphatic-derivatives production line at its plant in Salindres, France. The…
October Chementator Briefs
Flexible aerogels Researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, Ohio; www.nasa.gov) have developed new flexible aerogels that could eventually be used in highly insulating materials and linings. Aerogels, sometimes called “solid smoke,” are superlightweight structures of silica reinforced…
A cryogenic turbo mill generates rubber powder from recycled tires
A process developed by Lehigh Technologies (Lehigh; Tucker, Ga.; www.lehightechnologies.com) for embrittling and milling rubber from end-of-life vehicle-tire material is capable of generating micron-scale rubber particles that can be used in a host of rubber, foam and plastic products to…
A concept for making gasoline from air
Air Fuel Synthesis Ltd. (AFS; Darlington, U.K.; www.airfuelsynthesis.com) has recently demonstrated a process for producing carbon-neutral liquid hydrocarbon (HC) fuel from air-captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The proof-of-concept demonstration facility, located at Teesside, England produces 5–10 L/d of liquid HCs.…
Progress for making smart membranes
Last month marked the completion of the three-year, €3.6-million E.U.-funded research project, Self-assembled Polymer Membranes (SelfMem). Coordinated by the Institute of Polymer Research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG; Germany; www.hzg.de), with twelve partners from industry and academia in Israel, Canada…