In North America, Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) is doubling its capacities for producing the feed amino acid L-lysine. The two-phase expansion of the Blair, Nebraska plant to an annual capacity of 280,000 metric tons (m.t.) is on track…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.mhi.co.jp) and Suhail Bahwan Group (SBG; Oman) have established a joint venture (JV) engineering company, namely MHI Engineering and Industrial Projects India Private Ltd. (MEIP), in India effective September 2, 2011. MEIP…
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is investing €15 million in its glass fiber plant in the Antwerp docklands. For the specialty chemicals company glass fibers are a key intermediate for the production of high-tech plastics. With the expansion, the actual…
BASF Corp. (Iselin, N.J.; www.basf.com) has signed a long-term supply agreement with Lynas Corp. (Sydney, Australia; www.lynascorp.com), a fully integrated provider of Rare Earth materials. Under terms of the agreement, Lynas will supply BASF with a pre-determined annual volume of…
A joint venture (JV) between Vadxx Energy LLC (Akron, Ohio; www.vadxx.com) and Greenstar Recycling (Houston; www.greenstarrecycling.com) plans to start up a facility in mid-2012 to convert recovered plastics to synthetic crude oil. When complete, the facility will produce 80,000 bbl/yr…
Pöyry Plc.'s Industry Business Group (www.poyry.com) has been awarded services contract by Suzano Papel e Celulose for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) services for the Balance of Plant (BOP), and the Owners' Engineering services during the project implementation.…
Ineos Technologies (www.ineos.com) has today confirmed it has licensed its Innovene PP Process for the manufacture of homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers to the Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Yanan Energy and Chemical Company Limited in Shaanxi, China. The 300,000-ton/yr Innovene…
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com) announced today that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract for the basic engineering design of a new hydrogen production unit, based on Foster Wheeler Terrace-Wall steam-reforming…
Cellulosic biomass pretreated with ammonia undergoes structural changes that make it more susceptible to enzymatic attack, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, N.M.; www.lanl.gov) and collaborators at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (Madison, Wisc.; www.glbrc.org) have found.…
Plant Watch Solvay to form JV with Sadara to build H2O2 plant in Saudi Arabia July 28, 2011 — Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) intends to create a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Sadara Chemical Co. (itself a planned JV…