The Management Board of Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG (Nashua, N.H.; www.pfeiffer-vacuum.com) today announced the acquisition of U.S.-based Nor-Cal Products Inc. (Yreka, Calif.; www.n-c.com), effective June 22, 2017. With around 300 employees in the USA and Vietnam, Nor-Cal manufactures premium-quality vacuum…
As announced previously in mid-2017, Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has doubled its membrane capacities. “We have expanded the capacity of our plant in Bitterfeld so that we can continue meeting the rising demand for reverse osmosis membrane elements. This…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov) has recently announced the winners of this year’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. This recognition is given for innovations that create business opportunities from solutions to potential environmental problems — endeavors…
Plant Watch Arkema invests in capacity expansion for biosourced polyamide 11 July 12, 2017 — Arkema (Colombes, France; www.arkema.com) plans to invest around €300 million over five years in the biosourced polyamide 11 chain, building a new production plant in…
Blending is a fundamental chemical unit operation, and there are a handful of common ways to implement it. Blending applications can be either manual or automated, and can be carried out either as a batch or continuous process. There are…
This column is based on “Diammonium Phosphate Production – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/diammonium-phosphate-production-cost. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) ranks among the most important phosphate-based fertilizers, not only for its high nutrient content, but…
Follow these tips to get the most out of these high-risk, high-reward, third-party arrangements Outsourcing is the subcontracting of a business function to an outside entity. The concept of outsourcing was first articulated by David Ricardo, an English economist in…
Chemical engineers bring many essential skills to the diverse teams required for successful control room design In any continuous manufacturing plant in the chemical process industries (CPI), engineers need to consider control room architecture and design as part of their…
Despite cost hurdles, CO2-capture technologies continue to advance, driven by the critical role of CO 2 capture in achieving emissions-reduction goals Among the possible strategies for addressing climate change risks are CO2-removal approaches, including the capture of CO2 from large…
Hardware improvements and service programs add more value to today’s control valves Chemical processors demand reliability, safety and efficiency when selecting control valves. As a result, there have been significant advances to the equipment, including the use of better materials…