Last month, Uralchem OJSC (Moscow, Russia; www.uralchem.com) started production of a new fertilizer, called ASN 32:0:0:5, at Kirov-Chepetsk Chemical Works, OSJ. Granules of the new ASN formulation have a gradient structure with a high concentration of ammonium sulfate on the…
New MMA process Last month, the world’s first plant to produce methyl methacrylate (MMA) using the Alpha process of Lucite International Group Ltd., (Southampton, UK; www.lucite.com) started up. The 120,000-m.t./yr (metric ton per year) plant is located on Jurong Island…
Plant Watch Wacker and Dow Corning start production at integrated silicone site November 14, 2008 — Wacker Chemie AG and Dow Corning Corp. started production in the first stage of their new pyrogenic silica and siloxane plants in Zhangjiagang, China.…
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (Tokyo; www.m-kagaku.co.jp/index_en.htm) has developed a plate-in-frame reactor for performing oxidation reactions, such as for the partial oxidation of propane to form acrylic acid. Because of the reactor’s enhanced heat transfer to the catalyst — sandwiched between the…
AkzoNobel Polymer Chemicals LLC (Chigago, Ill.; www.akzonobel.com/polymer) has launched Perkalite, a new range of synthetic, layered double-hydroxide (LDH) organoclays. With proper compounding, the LDH organoclays delaminate to nanoscale sizes and form a true nanocomposite, says the company. Perkalite nanocomposites feature…
Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; www.toray.co.jp) has developed a new high-cycle molding resin that has improved flow characteristics, hardening time and heat-resisting properties. The new resin enabled the company to achieve a resin flow time of 3 min, hardening time…
Edwards (Crawley, U.K.; www.edwardsvacuum.com) today announced that it will jointly develop a perfluorocarbon (PFC) gas-abatement system with Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL; www.tel.com) — the PA-01E for etch equipment. The new gas abatement system will be available mid-year 2009. The PA-01E…
Hoerbiger Holding AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.hoerbiger.com), plans to acquire Altronic, Inc. (Girard, Ohio) — a leading provider of ignition systems for gas engines. Hoerbiger is active throughout the world in the fields of compression technology, automation technology and drive technology;…
In the first quarter of 2009 BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will start up a new plant for the production of up to 3,500 metric tons of piperazine chips per year at its integrated Antwerp Verbund site. This will significantly…
Following the completion of antitrust proceedings by end of September, the EU Commission has approved the acquisition of innotec GmbH (Schwelm, Germany) by Siemens AG (Munich, Germany; www.siemens.com) without imposing any conditions. This international vendor of digital engineering software and…