In The News
Outotec signs ferrochrome plant delivery agreement with TISCO JV in China
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has agreed with Shanxi Taigang Wanbang Furnace Charge Co. — a joint venture (JV) between Shanxi Jinzhong Industrial Trading Co. Ltd. and the world's largest stainless steel producer, Taiyuan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. (referred…
Evonik acquires the Pharmaceuticals business of SurModics
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has reached an agreement to acquire the Pharmaceuticals business of SurModics, Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.). Signing took place on November 1, 2011 and the transaction is expected to close shortly. Following the acquisition of…
Making formic acid by artificial photosynthesis
For the first time, an organic compound has been synthesized from water, carbon dioxide and sunlight — without any other external energy or reagents. The achievement, which was demonstrated by researchers at Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc. (Toyota…
PPG to increase global production capacity for precipitated silica and other business news
Plant Watch ColBiocel selects Chemtex technology for ethanol production in Colombia September 26, 2011 — Chemtex (Wilmington, N.C.; www.chemtex.com) has entered into a term sheet agreement with Colombiana de Biocombustibles Celulósicos (ColBiocel) for the supply of a license and…
World’s highest-purity lithium plant announces commercial launch
A facility that produces high-purity lithium carbonate for use in the growing market for electrolytes in electric-vehicle batteries has begun commercial operations in Imperial Valley, Calif. The 500-ton/yr plant, operated by Simbol Materials (Pleasanton, Calif.; www.simbolmaterials.com), is the only producer…
Supercritical water process converts biomass to sugars
Sugar is a critical feedstock for many emerging bio-based-chemical and biofuel processes, but harvesting sugar from low-value, nonfood biomass cost-effectively and at large scale remains a challenge. Renmatix Inc. (King of Prussia, Pa.; www.renmatix.com) has developed a process that uses…
November Chementator Briefs
New block copolymer Nexar is the tradename of a block copolymer product recently commercialized by Kraton Performance Polymers (Houston; www.kraton.com) that has unique water-transport properties. Building on its earlier work in anionic polymerization of styrene-butadiene block copolymers, the company…
Predictive process control at a refinery wastewater treatment plant
To date, the difficult-to-treat contaminants and their related biological inhibition in petroleum refinery wastewater have defied efforts to bring predictive and mathematical process control to biological wastewater-treatment systems. Now, for the first time, engineers at Refinery Water Engineering & Associates…
A new catalyst for asymmetric-transfer-hydrogenation reactions
The Fine Chemicals div. of Takasago International Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.takasago.com) has commercialized Deneb: Oxo-Tethered Ruthenium (II) Complex, which shows higher catalytic activities compared to conventional RuCl (arene)(N-sulfonylated diamine) catalyst systems. The higher activity enables a reduction in catalyst loading…
New catalyst allows lower-temperature waste destruction
Base-catalyzed decomposition (BCD) is a commercially used process developed in the early 1990s by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.) for the destruction of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). It has been used as an alternative to incineration for…