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Vertellus acquires sodium borohydride business from Dow

Vertellus (Indianapolis, Ind.; www.vertellus.com) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Sodium Borohydride (SBH) business, including associated assets, from The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com). Vertellus is a portfolio company of Chicago-based private-equity firm Wind Point Partners.  Wind…

Yara to build new nitric acid plant, increase ammonium nitrate capacity in Sweden

The Board of Yara International ASA (Oslo, Norway; www.yara.com) has approved an investment of SEK 1,747 million ($220 million) to sustain and increase technical ammonium nitrate (TAN) capacity in the Köping site in Sweden. The investment includes the construction of…

ACS names DuPont’s Thomas Connelly as new CEO

The American Chemical Society (ACS; Washington D.C.; www.acs.org) Board of Directors has named Thomas M. Connelly, Jr., Ph.D., executive vice president and chief innovation officer at DuPont, the Society’s next executive director and chief executive officer (CEO), effective February 17,…

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KBR signs ammonia technology alliance with PT Rekayasa Industri  

KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has signed an agreement with PT Rekayasa Industri (REKIND) to provide ammonia technology in the Indonesian, Southeast Asian and Asian markets. Under this agreement, REKIND will exclusively promote and license KBR’s proprietary ammonia technology, along with…

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KBR awarded catalytic olefins technology contract  

KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) recently won a contract, by Lotte Chemical Titan (M) SDN. BHD., to provide licensing and basic engineering design services to revamp an existing steam-cracker plant in the Asia Pacific Region. Under the terms of the contract,…

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Solvay boosts resin production capacity in India 

Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) is increasing resin production capacity at its plant in Panoli, Gujarat state in India, by 25% to support strong demand for its innovative ultra-high performance polymers KetaSpire and AvaSpire. Solvay's Global Business Unit Specialty Polymers…

Showa Denko and UOP open high-silica zeolite plant in Japan

Union Showa (USKK), a joint venture (JV) between Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; Tokyo, Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) and UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) has completed the construction of a new high-silica zeolite plant within the premises of SDK’s Higashinagahara Plant in…

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BASF launches FCC catalysts testing and research laboratory in Heidelberg  

BASF SE’s (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) Refining Catalysts business today launched a new fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts testing and research laboratory at the hte GmbH (hte) site in Heidelberg, Germany. hte is a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF SE and…

Sasol selects Toyo for Lake Charles LLDPE contract

Toyo Engineering Korea Limited (Toyo-Korea), a subsidiary of Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a contract from Sasol Ltd. (Johannesburg, South Africa; www.sasol.co.za) to provide detailed engineering, procurement, module fabrication, and construction support services for a linear…

BioAmber signs exclusive supply agreement with Oleon for biosuccinic acid in lubricants

BioAmber Inc. (Montreal, Canada; www.bio-amber.com), an industrial biotechnology company producing sustainable chemicals, has signed an exclusive supply agreement for bio-based succinic acid with Oleon.  Under the terms of the 5-year contract, which runs from 2014 to the end of 2018,…