In conventional hydrogen and ammonia plants, the final conversion of CO to H2 occurs across the low-temperature shift (LTS) catalyst. This makes the LTS catalyst one of the most important catalysts in the plant — even small changes in its…
A process to make polylactic acid (PLA) that requires no solvent or metal catalyst has been developed by Ricoh Co. (Ricoh; Tokyo, www.ricoh.com), in cooperation with Shizuoka University. Ricoh’s continuous PLA process is based on a commercially available organic catalyst…
Plant Watch Wacker invests €40 million to expand polymer site in China March 5, 2012 — Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) is expanding its polymer activities by investing around €40 million to build two new production facilities at its…
A six-stage water treatment process involving electrocoagulation (EC) and multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation could improve options for the disposal of sludge and brine in applications that include the treatment of water from hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells (see…
Construction of a 1-hectare (ha) carbon-capture and recycling “synthesizer” demonstration plant has started at Tarong Power Station near the town of Nanango in southeast Queensland, Australia. Tarong Power Station comprises four coal-fired units with a gross generating capacity of 1,400…
Biobutanol milestones Last month, Cobalt Technologies (Cobalt; Mountain View, Calif.; www.cobalttech.com) announced two achievements toward commercial-scale production of bio-based n -butanol: the demonstration of its biomass pretreatment process, and the demonstration of its advanced-strain fermentation process. In cooperation with…
Invensys Operations Management (IOM; Plano, Tex.; iom.invensys.com), a division of Invensys, has expanded its certification for virtualization technology, making its industrial automation systems the first to be certified for high availability, disaster recovery and fault tolerance in supervisory control applications…
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been jointly awarded, with ENPPI — an engineering company under the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum — a contract to build a 460,000 ton/yr ethylene plant and a 20,000 ton/yr butadiene extraction plant…
Guodian Northeast Environmental Protection Industry Group, Ltd. has selected Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany; www.siemens.com/water) to supply an IPS composting system using the new Mechanically Enhanced Biodrying (MEB) process for the Shenyang Wastewater Treatment Plant Sludge Treatment Project in…
GEA Group AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has received an order worth more than €70 million from Fonterra in New Zealand. The order will be handled by the GEA Process Engineering Segment. The new whole milk powder plant which only utilizes…