Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Showa Denko Carbon, Inc. (www.sdkc.com), to expand its graphite products manufacturing facility in Ridgeville, S.C. Located in Dorchester County, the Showa Denko plant produces graphite…
The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) confirmed today that construction of its new manufacturing facility for production of the Dow Powerhouse Solar Shingle is underway at the Company’s Michigan Operations site in Midland. The new, large scale manufacturing facility…
KBR (Houston; www.hbr.com) has been selected to execute engineering design services for three coal-seam gas (CSG) pipelines designed to carry CSG from gasfields in central Queensland, Australia to an export facility on Curtis Island. The project will be executed for…
A system that utilizes existing biological wastewater-treatment facilities for destruction of biodegradable volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other organic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) has been demonstrated at three U.S. petroleum-refining and chemical facilities, and the developer has plans to extend…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, www.mhi.co.jp) says it has established technology to produce bioethanol for automobile use by using soft-cellulose, such as wheat straw and rice straw, as raw materials. MHI estimates the fuel cost for a full-scale production…
A novel method for treating industrial liquid waste employs supercritical water infused with oxygen to destroy organic compounds. Developed by Innoveox (Paris; www.innoveox.com) and based on technology patented by the French government research organization CNRS (www.cnrs.fr), supercritical water oxidation (SCWO)…
A team from CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (Melbourne, Australia; www.csiro.au) has developed a new technique for growing smart materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which can be used in pollution control, or as catalysts, or for transporting drugs in…
Last month, construction was completed on the world’s first commercial plant to produce a next-generation solid fuel, called Bio-cokes, at Takatsuki, Japan. The renewable material is produced from forest residues and can be used as an alternative to coal-based coke…
A team led by Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu) researcher Michael Deem has assembled a database of 2.6 million possible unique zeolites — porous silicate minerals often used as catalysts or molecular sieves. The database of potential structures could inform efforts…
Plant Watch Strategic partnership for acrylonitrile and sodium cyanide in the Middle East April 29, 2011 — Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com), Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corp. (Tokyo; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) and Mitsubishi Corp. (Tokyo; www.mitsubishicorp.com) have signed…