In The News
Süd-Chemie acquires Hi-Tech
In the course of the closing end of December 2008, Süd-Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.sud-chemie.com) has acqured the ceramics filter business, which operates under the name of Hi-Tech, of the Cookson Group Plc. (London). Hi-Tec (Alfred Station, N.Y.) develops and…
Axens awarded petrochemical complex in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan’s JSC Trade House KazMunaiGaz has selected Axens’ (Rueil-Malmaison Cedex – France; www.axens.net) ParamaX Technology Suite for the first major aromatics complex to be located at the Atyrau Refinery in Kazakhstan. The Atyrau refinery processes up to 5.0 million metric…
GEA increases activities in the solar-thermal business
GEA Ibérica, the Spanish subsidiary of the GEA Group AG (Bochum, Germany; www.geagroup.com), has acquired Caldemón Ibérica S.A., a leading manufacturer of shell-and-tube heat exchangers and surface condensers, commonly used in solar thermal power plants. In 2008, the company expects…
Hoerbiger concludes acquisition of Altronic
Hoerbiger Holding AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.hoerbiger.com) has acquired Altronic, Inc. (Girard, Ohio), effective January 1, 2009. Hoerbiger will integrate the company into the Business Division Engine Solutions, and therefore into the Strategic Business Unit Compression Technology. Altronic has locations in…
Economic Indicators: Business News
Plant Watch Construction of AkzoNobel’s unit for ethylene amines in China progresses December 17, 2008 — AkzoNobel Functional Chemicals (Amersfoort, The Netherlands) is installing production capacity for ethylene amines in Ningbo, China, including ethylene oxide and monoethanolamine (MEA). Startup of…
Chementator: A hard coating promises to reduce wear and power use in rotating equipment
Researchers at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s (DOE; Washington, D.C.) Ames Laboratory (www.ameslab.gov) and Iowa State University (both of Ames, Iowa) have developed a hard, smooth coating that can be applied to industrial equipment, such as pumps, gears and cutting…
January Chementator Briefs
Bioethanol Last month, an energy-saving plant for producing bioethanol started up in Norrköping, Sweden, for Lantmännen Agroetanol AB. When operating at full capacity, the plant will produce 470,000 L/d of bioethanol from grain (mostly wheat), making it the largest bioethanol…
Siemens installs photovoltaic plant
Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com/energy) has installed a turnkey photovoltaic (PV) plant on the roof of the Siemens Healthcare X-ray systems manufacturing plant in Forchheim, Germany. After a planning and construction time of less than three months, the unit went…
Rahu and OMG ink global coatings and composites agreement
OM Group, Inc. (OMG; Cleveland, Ohio; www.omgi.com) and Rahu Catalytics Ltd. (Nottingham, U.K.; www.rahucat.com) have agreed to develop a long-term global license and supply agreement for novel technology in the field of additives for coatings, inks and composites. According to…
Baytubes now also available in the U.S.
Bayer MaterialScience (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayermaterialscience.com) has received regulatory approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.) for Baytubes, BMS’ multi-wall carbon nanotubes (CE, December 2005, p. 16). This enables the company to sell Baytubes on the American…