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.…
Metabolix Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.metabolix.com) has successfully demonstrated and completed research and development for scaleup on a fermentation process that produces gamma -butyrolactone (GBL) from genetically engineered bacteria. The process is built upon the company’s technology for engineering metabolic pathways…
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…
Since the isolation of graphene by the “Scotch tape” method, many researchers have tried to synthesize solution-dispersible graphene. The challenge has been to develop a high-yield method that can exfoliate graphite efficiently into solution-dispersible graphene sheets without collateral damage to…
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…
Today only a few percent of Canada’s oil sands resource is accessible by traditional surface mining, so the rest has to be recovered in situ, mostly by steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). In this process, steam is injected into a horizontal…
A new yeast strain that could one day substitute for petroleum as a source of surfactants for detergents, soaps and cosmetics has been identified by researchers at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (Peoria, Ill.;…
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…
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; Tokyo, www.m-kagaku.co.jp, MCC) is developing bio-based technology for producing propylene, butadiene, 1,4-butanediol (BDO), terephthalic acid and succinic acid from glucose. In collaboration with North American partners, MCC plans to start production of succinic acid and 1,4…
KBR (Houston; www.kbr.com) was awarded a contract by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) — a Jaypee Group company — to provide license and engineering design services for JAL’s brownfield 2,200 metric tons (m.t.) per day ammonia plant in Kanpur, India. KBR…