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Ineos announces plans to construct VAM plant in Europe
Ineos Technologies’ (London; www.ineos.com) INEOS Oxide business announces that it is planning to build a vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant with production capacity of 300,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) to support its position as a supplier to a broad…
Sulzer acquires license for Total’s Wash Tank Technology for Oil Processing
Sulzer’s Chemtech division (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzer.com) has been granted a license covering the Total-patented Wash Tank Technology for Oil Processing. The main purpose of this technology is to enhance the removal of water, salt, and contaminants from oil and emulsions,…
Evonik opens new plant for specialty silicones in Shanghai
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has started up a new plant in Shanghai, China, for production of a wide range of organically modified specialty silicones. The products, which are manufactured in batch processes, are used in, for example, polyurethane,…
Air Liquide Engineering & Construction and Mitsubishi Chemical announced a new partnership
Air Liquide Engineering & Construction (Frankfurt am Main, Germany; www.engineering-airliquide.com) has signed a cooperation agreement with Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; Tokyo. Japan; www.m-chemical.co.jp) to license MCC’s butene-to-crude-butadiene technology used in the petrochemical industry. MCC has developed this state-of-the art oxidative…
Toyo awarded petrochemical project in Indonesia
Toyo Engineering Group (Toyo; Chiba, www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a construction project from PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), Indonesia's largest petrochemical company. This project involves construction of a polyethylene production unit of HDPE, LLDPE and mLLDPE with a total…
Eastman announces projects to increase CHDM production capacity
Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, Tenn.; www.eastman.com) announced multiple projects to increase CHDM (1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol) capacity at its Kingsport, Tennessee, manufacturing facility. The series of debottlenecks and expansion projects will occur over the next 18 months and will increase capacity by 15,000…
Chemical Engineering Magazine Booklist: September 2017
The following information describes recently published books relevant to the chemical process industries (CPI): Engineering Energy Storage, By Odne Stokke Burheim, 2017, Academic Press, 252 pages, $125.00. Energetic Materials: Advanced Processing Technologies for Next-Generation Materials. Edited by Mark Mezger, Kay…
Scientists as celebrities
I recently saw a television commercial that caught my attention and provided “food for thought.” The ad begins with a young girl opening a birthday gift, and is delighted when she sees that it is a Millie Dresselhaus doll. A…
Technology Profile: Acetic Acid Production from Methanol
This column is based on “Acetic Acid Production from Methanol – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/acetic-acid-production-cost. Acetic acid (also known as ethanoic acid) is a carboxylic acid found as dilute solutions in…
Business News – September 2017
Plant Watch $8-billion phosphate megaproject starts up in Saudi Arabia August 11, 2017 — Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) announced that the Ma’aden Wa’ad Al-Shamal Phosphate Co.’s Umm Wu’al Phosphate Project in Saudi Arabia has started production. Fluor is providing…