In The News
BASF plans to expand vinylformamide capacity in Ludwigshafen
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) is planning to expand the manufacturing plant for vinylformamide (VFA) in Ludwigshafen. In addition, BASF intends to increase the polymerization capacity in Ludwigshafen and build a new polymerization line for VFA in China for further…
BASF to build butadiene extraction plant in Antwerp
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) plans to build a butadiene extraction plant at its Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium. The plant will have an annual production capacity of 155,000 metric tons (m.t.) and is scheduled to start up during 2014.…
Technip awarded contract for one of the largest ethylene crackers in the world
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) was awarded by Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) a license, supply of basic engineering package and an engineering and procurement services contract for the Refinery Off-Gas Cracker (ROGC) plant. This contract is part of the expansion project…
Linde signs contract for second LAO plant with Alpha-SABLIN process
Linde Engineering, a division of the Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com), is set to build a new Alpha-SABLIN plant for the production of linear alpha olefins (LAO) in Nizhnekamsk, Russian Federation, which upon completion will be operated by Nizhnekamskneftekhim (NKNH),…
CB&I awarded paraxylene contract by Reliance Industries
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded a contract by Reliance Industries Ltd. for providing technology for the world’s largest aromatics complex to be built at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. "Our role as the exclusive licensor for BP's paraxylene technology…
MHI receives award for testing CO2-recovery facility for Statoil
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.mhi.co.jp) has been awarded from Statoil (Trondheim, Norway; www.statoil.com) to undertake verification testing for a technology qualification program (TQP) for one of the world's largest carbon-dioxide-capture facilities. The approximately 3,400-ton/d CO2 recovery system…
Development Speeds up In Catalysis
There might be as many categories of catalysts as there are chemical processing applications. And, no matter what the specialty or application, most catalyst producers are in a constant state of research and development in order to meet the demands…
Algae-harvesting technique applied to produced water
Technology originally developed for dewatering algae has shown success in separating hydrocarbons from produced water that results from oil and gas drilling. The method could be used in treating produced water for onsite re-use as hydraulic fracturing fluid. To harvest…
July Chementator Briefs
ADN production Nylon-polymer producer Invista (Wichita, Kan.; www.invista.com) has developed new technology for the production of adiponitrile (ADN), a key ingredient for nylon 6,6. The advances, which came as a result of $40 million of R&D spending, can improve…
A step closer to replacing platinum in catalytic converters
The research group of Masaru Ogura, an associate professor at the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo (www.u-tokyo.ac.jp), has clarified the degradation mechanism and the role potassium carbonate plays in the catalyst systems used for reducing soot from the…