Among the most pressing concerns for the chemical process industries (CPI) are weathering the global economic recession and dealing with anticipated carbon emissions regulations. Switching from oil and gas to biomass for fuel in a CPI plant is a relatively…
0 0 0 Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com/energy) has received an order from Vietnam for the supply of an air compressor train. Purchaser is Air Liquide Engineering South Asia. The compressor train will be deployed in a coal-to-urea production plant,…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen; germany; www.evonik.de) has expanded its product range for high-molecular-weight plasticizer alcohols and commissioned a plant for the production of the plasticizer alcohol 2-propyl heptanol (2-PH) at the Marl Chemical Park. The company’s investment in the plant,…
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM; Decatur, Ill.; www.admworld.com) announced today the expansion of its European oilseed processing capabilities with the acquisition of ViaChem Group’s oilseed processing assets in Olomouc, Czech Republic. This facility, in the Eastern part of the Czech…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany;www.evonik.de) and Cristal Material Corp. (Taipei, Taiwan) have formed a new joint venture (JV) to manufacture high-quality glass lenses for next-generation light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which will marketed under the Savosil brand. The Evonik Cristal Materials Corp.…
Researchers from the University of Sydney (Australia; http://www.usyd.edu.au) are developing structures, analogous to some sea creatures, for capturing carbon dioxide that is released when producing hydrogen from biomass. The project, funded by German energy company E.ON AG (Düsseldorf), will use…
Both carbon dioxide and sulfur components are removed from fluegas in a reversible process being developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL, Richland, Wash.; http://www.pnl.gov). The process uses a solvent that combines liquid organic bases (amidine and guanidine) and alcohols…
Veolia Water is awarded new contract for water treatment and reuse in Brazil September 15, 2009 — Under a 50/50 joint venture with Enfil, a Brazilian, water-treatment engineering company, t he Brazilian oil company Petrobras (Rio de Janeiro; http://www.petrobras.com) has…
An in-situ method that removes mercury from soil, sludge and other industrial waste has been patented (U.S. Patent 7 589 248) by scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; Upton, N.Y.; http://www.bnl.gov). The method shows promise as a simple and inexpensive…
Nippon Shokubai Co. (Nisshoku; Osaka, Japan; http://www.shokubai.co.jp) is developing a process for making acrylic acid from glycerin directly obtained as a byproduct from biodiesel-fuel (BDF) production. In 2007, Nisshoku demonstrated, under a grant from the Research Institute of Innovative Technology…