In The News
Solvay commissions the world’s largest H2O2 plant in Thailand
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) announced today that MTP HPJV (Thailand) Ltd, its hydrogen peroxide joint venture (JV) with The Dow Chemical Co., has successfully commissioned the largest hydrogen peroxide plant in the world. The production process of the new plant…
Axens’ technologies for Irak Nassiriya new refinery
The State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP), part of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, has awarded Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) the Basic Design and License contracts for the construction of the new petroleum refinery in Nassiriya, Iraq. Axens will supply…
Resinall Rütgers Resins acquires Neville Chemical Europe
Resinall Rütgers Resins GmbH (RRR; Duisburg, Germany) — a joint venture (JV) between Rütgers Novares GmbH (Duisburg, Germany) and Resinall Europe bvba (Brugge, Belgium) — has acquired the chemicals company Neville Chemical Europe BV (NCE; Uithoorn, Netherlands).The acquisition of NCE…
Steel-mill-dust recycling JV begins operations
Nippon Steel Corp. (Tokyo; www.nsc.co.jp) and Kobe Steel, Ltd. (Kobe, Japan; www.kobelco.com) announce that their steel-mill-dust recycling plant (photo below) began commercial operation on October 1. As part of the objectives to deepen and expand their alliance, the two companies decided…
Oxea: Capacity expansion at Bay City plant
In a move to further optimize its value-adding chains and boost product availability, Oxea GmbH (Oberhausen, Germany; www.oxea-chemicals.com) has successfully increased its manufacturing capabilities for synthesis gas (syngas) at its Bay City, Texas plant by 10%. Syngas is the main…
Aveva acquires the LFM software division of Z+F UK
Aveva (Cambridge, U.K.; www.aveva.com) today announced the acquisition of Z+F UK Ltd. (Manchester, U.K.; www.zf-uk.com). The strategic acquisition includes only the division of Z+F that produces the LFM software suite. This follows a long and successful partnership with Z+F UK…
A new approach to maintaining tubular heat exchangers
At the 2nd Annual ChemInnovations Conference and Expo (Houston; September 13–15), Hemi-O Technologies LLC (Corpus Christi, Tex.; dixonengineering@gmail.com) introduced its patent-pending technology that enables external access to individual tubes in a heat exchanger while the exchanger is in service and…
Dewatering enzymes boost ethanol production efficiency
A technique that improves the efficiency of ethanol plants by lowering the cost of dewatering the byproduct stillage (a slurry of corn solids and water) from the fermentation process has been developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s…
A new heterogeneous catalyst for low-temperature VOC decomposition
Professor Yuki Taniguchi at the Chemicals Research Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan, www.res.titech.ac.jp/~gosei/taniguchi/index.html) has developed a new catalyst system that decomposes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at lower temperatures than that required by conventional catalysts. The SILP (supported ionic liquid…
Waste-to-ethanol plant on pace for mid-2012 operation
Impending standards requiring that cellulosic ethanol be used in gasoline blending have focused attention on building a capacity for bioethanol from non-food sources. In a development that may begin to meet that need, a plant employing a unique method for…