Latest News: Business
New chairman of BASF’s Board of Executive Directors is named
The Supervisory Board of BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has appointed Dr. Kurt Bock to succeed Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht as chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF. Dr. Martin Brudermüller will become vice chairman of the Board of…
Solvay and Thinfilm enter commercial agreement
Solvay Solexix (Solvay; Bollate, Italy; www.solvaysolexis.com) will begin to market its newly-developed Solvene polymer for applications in printed electronics with its partner Thin Film Electronics ASA (Thinfilm; Oslo, Norway; www.thinfilm.se) Solvay and Thinfilm started a collaboration, in 2007, in the…
Aker Solutions: Contract for first Russian ClO2 plant
Aker Solutions (www.akersolutions.com) has signed a contract with Ilim Group to supply an integrated chlorine dioxide plant for Ilim's pulp mill project in Bratsk, Russia. The contract value to Aker Solutions is approximately $18 million. Aker Solutions will supply technology, engineering,…
Dow Corning invests in innovation and solar energy
The Dow Corning Corp. (Midland, Michigan; www.dowcorning.com) has announced that it will invest up to $13 million to expand its European capabilities to innovate with silicon-based materials and technologies. The investment in a Solar Energy Exploration / Development Center (SEED)…
AkzoNobel formally acquires Dow powder business
AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) has completed its acquisition of The Dow Chemical Co.’s (Dow; Midland, Michigan; www.dow.com) powder coatings activities, which was purchased by Dow in 2009 as part of its acquisition of Rohm and Haas. The deal was…
Cellulosic biofuel demonstration in China
Novozymes A/S (Bagsvaerd, Denmark: www.novozymes.com), COFCO Ltd. (www.cofco.com/en) and Sinopec Corp. (both Beijing, China; english.sinopec.com) signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering the next steps towards commercialization of cellulosic biofuel in China. As part of the agreement, COFCO and Sinopec will build a…
Milestones in distributed production of biofuels
A biomass-to-liquids (BTL) demonstration plant jointly operated by the Oxford Catalysts Group Plc. (Abingdon, U.K.; www.oxfordcatalysts.com) and the Portuguese incorporated holding company, SGC Energia (SGCE; www.sgc.pt), for the small-scale distributed production of biofuels has achieved some significant commissioning milestones. The…
Positive economic reports out, but polyethylene production drops, ACC report indicates
Several economic reports out this week paint a largely positive picture for the recovery, but polyethylene production was down, according to the latest report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Arlington, Va.). Consumer confidence and personal incomes are generally on…
Flexible carbon capture CFB technology moves closer to commercialization
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com) has signed, together with ENDESA and the Spanish Foundation, Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (CIUDEN), a grant agreement with the European Commission (EC; Brussels, Belgium). The grant agreement stipulates the terms of €180 million…
Startup of large biomass CFB in Finland
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com) announced today the successful start of commercial operation of a large-scale, 125-MWe (385-MWth), circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) boiler island delivered to Kaukaan Voima Oy, in Finland. Kaukaan Voima Oy is owned by Pohjolan Voima Oy…