Latest News: Business
Clariant opens new production unit for halogen-free flame retardants in Hürth-Knapsack
Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) is opening a second production unit for the successful flame retardant (FR) Exolit OP at the Hürth-Knapsack plant near Cologne. The established non-halogenated additive is used primarily in the electronics and electrical engineering (E&EE) sector. The…
Fluor to build Shell’s Quest carbon-capture facility in Canada
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced today that Shell selected the firm as its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for Shell’s carbon capture facility for its flagship carbon capture and storage (CCS) Quest project at the Athabasca Oil Sands…
U.S. specialty chemical market volume fell 1.1% in August, ACC says
The U.S. specialty chemicals market volume fell 1.1% in August, more than offsetting the 0.4% gain from July, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; www.americanchemistry.com). The data are a continuation…
BASF and CSM establish 50-50 JV for biobased succinic acid
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Purac (Diemen, The Netherlands), a subsidiary of CSM (www.csmglobal.com), are establishing a joint venture (JV) for the production and sale of biobased succinic acid. The company will be named Succinity GmbH and will be…
Braskem Idesa awards large EPC contract for the Ethylene XXI project
Braskem Idesa S.A.P.I. awarded to a joint venture (JV) formed by Odebrecht (40%), Technip (40%) and ICA Fluor (20%) a contract worth more than $2.7 billion (around €2.1 billion) for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a petrochemical complex…
Toyo awarded a urea production technology contract from Bolivia
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a urea synthesis and granulation technologies supply contract with a capacity of 2,100 ton/d for Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), Bolivian national oil company in Carrasco, Cochabamba, Bolivia. The scope…
Stamicarbon to supply HP equipment for urea project in Bangladesh
Stamicarbon B.V. (Sittard, The Netherlands; www.stamicarbon.com), the Licensing and IP Center of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., (Milan, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.it) has signed a contract with China Chengda Engineering Co. (Chengda) for the supply of high-pressure (HP) proprietary equipment for the Shahjalal Fertilizer…
Committee republicans introduce EPA scientific advisory process reform bill
U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) and Committee Members Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) and Rep. Dan Benishek (R-MI) introduced legislation to reform the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB)…
RAC adopts scientific opinions on harmonized classification and labeling
The European Chemicals Agency announced that The Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) has adopted the following opinions on harmonized classification and labeling across Europe. Cymoxanil Cymoxanil, used as a fungicide, already has a harmonized classification as toxic through both…
High-tech plastic from Bayer driving investment
The sharply rising global demand for the high-tech plastic Apec from Bayer MaterialScience AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayermaterialscience.de) is spawning major investment in eastern Germany. Another plant for the production of a key precursor for Apec is currently under construction in…