Latest News: Business
UOP opens gas-processing-membrane manufacturing center in Malaysia
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, has opened a manufacturing and operations center in Penang, Malaysia, that will produce natural gas membrane elements to support the growing natural gas market. UOP’s Separex membrane systems remove impurities from…
JGC: Commercialization of new liquid fuel from low-rank coal
JGC Corp.(Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) has completed the construction of a demonstration plant in Indonesia for the production of a liquid-type new fuel called JGC Coal Fuel (JCF). An inauguration ceremony was held, attended by Indonesian and Japanese government officials, as…
First microchannel F-T reactor starts up under commercial conditions
Oxford Catalysts Group/Velocys (Abingdon, U.K. and Plain City, Ohio; www.oxfordcatalysts.com) announced that the first commercial-scale microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reactor has been successfully started up and is operating as expected at a client’s facility. The reactor, with a nominal capacity of…
Lukoil to install the 200th Axens’ Prime-G+ Unit
Lukoil Co. (www.lukoil.com) has selected Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) to provide the technology license for a new Prime-G+TM unit to desulfurize FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) gasoline at its Kstovo petroleum refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia. The unit, which…
Lanxess starts up new nitrile butadiene rubber plant in China
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has started up on schedule a nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) plant in Nantong, China, as part of its 50:50 joint venture with Taiwan’s TSRC Corp. The two companies have jointly invested $50 million (approximately €39…
Outotec to deliver technology for copper production to Grupo México
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) and Grupo México have signed a contract for the delivery of solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) technology for Grupo México's Buenavista del Cobre plant, in northern México. The contract value is about €22 million. Outotec's…
CSB deploys team to investigate fatal hot-work explosion
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB; www.csb.gov) has deployed a four-person investigation team to El Dorado, Ark. to determine the cause of an explosion and fire that severely burned and killed three workers. The accident occurred Monday, May 21, 2012,…
U.S. CPRI slipped by 0.3% in April, ACC says
According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com), the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) slipped by 0.3% in April, following a downwardly revised 0.4% decline in March. Chemical production fell across all regions. Using a…
Georg Fischer acquires Independent Pipe Products
Georg Fischer (Schaffhausen, Switzerland; www.georgfischer.com) announced today the acquisition of Independent Pipe Products Inc. (IPP; Dallas, Tex.; www.indpipe.net), the leading U.S. provider of large diameter pipes and fittings in Polyethylene (PE). The acquisition strengthens the leading position of GF Piping…
Nation Ford Chemical acquires PANA
Nation Ford Chemical (NFC; Fort Mill, S.C.; www.nationalformchem.com) has announced the acquisition of the PANA business from Bayer CropScience. PANA (N-phenyl-alpha-naphthylamine) is an important antioxidant used world-wide to protect jet engine lubricants, functional fluids and rubber. NFC is in the…