In The News
Outotec to deliver concentrator technology for Codelco in Chile
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has signed a contract with Chilean Codelco, the leading copper producer in the world, for the design and delivery of concentrator technology to Codelco's new Mina Ministro Hales mine in northern Chile. The contract value…
Evonik to double its L-lysine capacities in the U.S.
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…
MHI establishes JV engineering company in India
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 boosts capacity at glass-fiber plant in Antwerp
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 and Lynas establish long-term rare-earth supply agreement
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…
Plastics-to-oil JV plans full-scale facility
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…
Solvay to form JV with Sadara to build hydrogen peroxide plant in Saudi Arabia and more business news
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…
Biomass pretreatment
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.…
A simpler process to make PX from LCO
Anew process to make BTX (benzene, toluene and xylenes) from light cycle oil (LCO), an oversupplied product of petroleum refineries that can supplement the dwindling supply of BTX precursors, is being developed by JX Nippon Oil & Energy (JX Energy;…
Carbon storage and electricity generation project gets DOE funding
A project aimed at using geothermal heat to power an electricity-producing turbine with supercritical carbon dioxide has received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov). The project also incorporates an element of CO2…