In The News
NatureWorks broadens Ingeo product portfolio with Sulzer proprietary equipment
NatureWorks LLC (Minnetonka, Minn.; www.natureworksllc.com) and Sulzer Chemtech Ltd. (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzerchemtech.com) announced today that Sulzer has shipped proprietary production equipment (photo below) to NatureWorks’ Blair, Nebraska, facility that will enable NatureWorks to increase production of Ingeo biopolymer and produce…
BASF increases production capacity for methanesulfonic acid in Ludwigshafen
After a construction time of nearly two years, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has now started up production in the plant extension used to manufacture methanesulfonic acid in Ludwigshafen. BASF is said to be the world’s leading manufacturer of methanesulfonic…
BASF building production plant for specialty zeolites in Ludwigshafen
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) is investing in the construction of a production plant for specialty zeolites at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, headquarters site. The plant is expected to start up operations in the first quarter of 2014, significantly increasing BASF’s…
Foster Wheeler awarded BEP for MEG facility in Qatar
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com) say that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract by Shell Global Solutions International B.V. to develop a basic engineering package (BEP) for a world-scale mono-ethylene glycol…
Shell to construct world’s first oil sands CCS project
Shell (www.shell.com) says it will go ahead with the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project for an oil sands operation in Canada. The so-called Quest project will be built on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint venture…
Air Products to build a new ASU to supply Cangzhou Zhengyuan Fertilizer
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has signed a long-term contract with Cangzhou Zhengyuan Fertilizer Co., and will build, own and operate an air separation unit (ASU) and integrated gas liquefier in Hebei Province, China. The ASU will produce approximately…
SNC-Lavalin awarded EPCM contract for copper project in Chile
SNC-Lavalin Inc. (Montreal, Quebec, Canada; www.snclavalin.com) has been awarded a contract by Minera Antucoya S.A., a subsidiary of Antofagasta Minerals S.A. (AMSA), to provide overall management, detailed engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the Antucoya project in Chile.…
Lanxess to build world’s largest EPDM plant in China
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is building the world’s largest plant for EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) synthetic rubber in China. The company is investing €235 million in the plant in Changzhou (Jiangsu Province). This is the largest investment the…
This osmium-based catalyst is rendered nontoxic by polymer incarceration
Professor Shu Kobayashi and his research group at The School of Science, University of Tokyo (Japan; www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/users/synorg/index_E.html) have developed an osmium-based catalyst for performing asymmetric syntheses of drug precursors. While showing the same catalytic performance of its predecessor — a…
A commercial move toward algae farming for CO2 recovery
Advanced Algal Technologies (Sydney, Australia; www.advancedalgal.com) has signed a $100-million deal with Fuzhou Xiangli Enterprise Management Consulting (Fuzhou, China) — an LED-lighting manufacturer — for a license to build 500 algal-farming-conveyor modular units per year. These units will be used…