The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) plans to increase ethane cracking capabilities on the U.S. Gulf Coast over the next two to three years, and improve its ethane cracking capabilities by 20–30% in this timeframe. In addition, Dow announced…
Today, specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) opened Asia’s most state-of-the-art plant for ion exchange resins in India. The new plant was constructed over a period of two years in the new chemical park in Jhagadia in the…
Graham Corp. (Batavia, N.Y.; www.graham-mfg.com), a designer and manufacturer of critical equipment for the oil refining, petrochemical and power industries, has been awarded three orders totaling approximately $4.8 million for specialized condensers, liquid ring pump packages and ejector systems to…
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) has been awarded by Sonatrach, the Algerian national oil company, a contract for the refurbishment and revamping of the Algiers refinery. This lump sum turnkey contract, worth approximately 67.9-billion Algerian Dinars ($908 million), will last 38…
Catalyst recycling A new process for selectively dissolving either palladium or gold from mixed-metal catalyst systems could offer a way to improve recycling of those materials. In traditional noble-metal recycling with aqua regia (mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids), metals…
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) has been awarded by Total an engineering, procurement services and construction management contract to increase the capacity of the hydrocracker at the Normandy refinery located in Gonfreville, France. This project, which is part of a larger…
Next spring, Exelus, Inc. (Livingston, N.J.; www.exelusinc.com) plans to pilot a new process that converts crude bioethanol (beer) into Bio-Alkylate — a fuel that is chemically identical to gasoline. New Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency…
At last month’s Sulfur 2010 Conference (November 1–4; Prague, Czech Republic), Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) introduced its latest sulfuric-acid catalyst, VK-701 Leap5, which promises to help operators of sulfuric acid plants meet more-stringent SO2-emission limits. When used in…
A demonstration plant for a biological process that produces ethanol and 2,3 butanediol (2,3-BD) from the offgases of industrial plants will be started up in the third quarter of 2011 at a steel mill operated by Bao Steel (Shanghai). Developed…
A nanotechnology-based, bottom-up approach to synthesizing catalysts for converting natural gas to ethylene could enable an alternative to the steam-cracking of crude oil, an energy-intensive process conventionally used to produce ethylene, the world’s most valuable commodity chemical. Scientists at the…