Latest News: Business
Eka Chemicals divests water-treatment chemical site
Eka Chemicals AB (Bohus, Sweden; www.akzonobel.com/eka) has agreed to divest its water treatment chemicals production activities located in Vetlanda, Sweden, to Feralco Nordic AB (www.feralco.com). The polyaluminium chloride products produced at this site are used for a number of flocculation…
Polymer production rose in July, but economic growth weakening, ACC says
Production of several high-volume polymers in the U.S. were up in July, but a troubled housing market meant lower economic growth, the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) says in its most recent economic assessment report. In the…
Perstorp selects Emerson for automation system upgrade
Emerson Process Management’s (Baar, Switzerland; www.emersonprocess.com) DeltaV digital automation system has been selected by Perstorp, the speciality chemicals group for the control system upgrade at its pentaerythritol processing plant in Perstorp, Sweden. The existing distributed control system will be replaced…
GEA: major order for power plant
The GEA Group (Bochum, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has received a large order over €20 million from a renown EPC contractor active in the Middle East for a Heller dry cooling system. GEA's installation will cool a new gas fired combined cycle…
LyondellBasell starts up new HDPE plant in Germany
LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) has successfully started up a new 320,000-ton/yr Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (ACP) high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Münchsmünster, Germany. The Münchsmünster HDPE plant enhances LyondellBasell’s flexibility to supply advanced HDPE grades to customers in…
KBR lands contracts in Iraq
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has been awarded two contracts by the Republic of Iraq Ministry of Oil through the South Refineries Company. KBR will provide licensing and basic engineering services for the construction of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and solvent…
Shell and Cosan sign JV for ethanol production
A $12-billion joint venture (JV) between Shell International Petroleum Co. (Shell; The Hague, The Netherlands; www.shell.com) and Cosan S.A. (Cosan; Brazil; www.cosan.com.br/) moved closer to reality today when the two companies signed binding agreements. The proposed JV, which still requires…
Aveva releases AVEVA NET Portal 4.5
Aveva Inc. (Houston; www.aveva.com) has released AVEVA NET Portal 4.5, a highly configurable user interface designed specifically to improve the accessibility of objects and documents used in complex engineering projects and throughout the long-term operation of such assets. The powerful new…
Haldor Topsoe & CoaLogix: Regenerated SCR catalyst
Haldor Topsoe Inc. (Houston; www.topsoe.com) and CoaLogix Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.; www.coalogix.com) have developed a closer collaboration since 2009, which has now been executed into a signed agreement to provide additional value in connection with SCR catalyst supply to the power-generation…
Aruba selects VWS firms for desalination plant
Two Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS; Saint Maurice, France; www.veoliawaterst.com) companies — N.A. Water Systems (www.nawatersystems.com) and OTV (www.otv.fr) — have been awarded a contract to design and build a 24,000 m3/d (6.34-million gal/d) desalination facility on the island…