Latest News: Business
Evonik Industries will increase its methyl methacrylate production
Evonik Industries AG (Essen; www.evonik.com) is increasing the production capabilities of its methyl methacrylate plants through debottlenecking and plant expansion projects in their existing plants in Europe (Worms and Wesseling in Germany), Asia (Shanghai in China), and the U.S. (Fortier)…
KBR: Construction services for rubber-plant expansion in Texas
KBR (Houston; www.kbr.com) was awarded a contract by Zeon Chemicals (Zeon; Louisville, Ky.; www.zeonchemicals.com) to provide construction management and construction services for Zeon’s nitrile-rubber plant-expansion project in Pasadena, Texas. KBR will manage the first phase of Zeon’s expansion plan,…
Solvay develops on-site F2 production units as alternative to NF3
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) is going to test a new on-site, electronic-grade fluorine-gas production unit at its industrial site in Onsan, Korea. After testing, the unit will be installed at a customer site. This production equipment, with a capacity…
U.S. Industrial Production Up, but Chemical Sector is Weak, ACC Says
Industrial production in the U.S. rose by a “surprisingly robust” 0.9% in July, according to data discussed in the most recent Weekly Chemistry and Economic Trends report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). However, overall production in…
BASF to invest in a world-scale acrylic acid complex in Brazil
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will invest in a world-scale production site for acrylic acid, butyl acrylate and superabsorbent polymers (SAP) in Camaçari, Bahia, Brazil. It will be the first acrylic acid and superabsorbents plant in South America. With an…
Evonik builds specialty chemical facility for electronic chips
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has begun building a second hexachlorodisilane (HCDS) production facility in Rheinfelden, a city in Germany’s Baden region. Production is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2012. Hexachlorodisilane, a raw material containing silicon,…
Spectris to acquire Omega Engineering
Spectris PLC (Egham, U.K.; www.spectris.com) announced this week that it has signed an agreement to acquire Omega Engineering Inc. (Stamford, Conn.; www.omega.com). Omega is a leading supplier of process measurement and control instrumentation across a broad range of categories,…
KBR’s phenol technology for LG Chem
KBR (Houston; www.kbr.com) was awarded a contract by LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea; LG; www.lgchem.com) to license KBR’s leading phenol technology for LG’s 240,000 metric tons (m.t.) per year phenol plant in Daesan, South Korea. The Daesan plant will…
Fluor wins new polymers-plant contract in Saudi Arabia
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by SAPCo, a joint venture company being formulated between Saudi Acrylic Acid Co. (Riyadh; www.saharapcc.com) and Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com), for its Super…
World’s first H2- fueling station to be supplied from municipal wastewater
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) today officially opened its newest California hydrogen fueling station drawing its feedstock from a very novel and sustainable source. Air Products is pumping hydrogen into fuel cell vehicles that is generated from the municipal…