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Sumitomo Chemical acquires full ownership of two agricultural subsidiaries in Europe

Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Tokyo, Japan) has acquired all shares of Philagro Holding, S.A. (Philagro), its France-based consolidated subsidiary engaged in sales of crop protection products. In addition, Sumitomo Chemical is to acquire all shares of another of its consolidated subsidiary,…

Covestro launches digitalized lifecycle-assessment tool for over 50,000 products

Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) has announced a new digitalization strategy that is focusing on more data-centric business management to achieve digital transformation and to offer its customers transparency for its products. Covestro's climate impact from the manufacture of its products…

Stamicarbon awarded contract to upgrade urea plant in China

MAIRE S.p.A. (Milan) announced that NEXTCHEM, through its subsidiary Stamicarbon, the nitrogen fertilizer technology licensor, has been selected to provide the Process Design Package to upgrade the Hulunbeier New Gold Chemical Co., Ltd.’s urea plant in Hulunbuir (China), leveraging on…

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Pilot project planned for thermocatalytic ethanol-to-butene process

In December 2024, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, Wash.; www.pnnl.gov) announced a three-year collaborative project with vehicle-tire manufacturer Bridgestone (Tokyo, Japan; www.bridgestone.com) to scale up a thermocatalytic process for converting renewably derived ethanol to n-butene. Conventionally, n-butene is…

Gas-Flow Calculations for Sonic Choking: Revisited

Gas compressibility can lead to choked flow in piping systems. Presented here is an overview of choked-flow geometries in pipes, and examples of how choked flow arises in different pipe layouts The more things change, the more they stay the…

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Flow chemistry yields a more sustainable route to isocyanates

The wide range of performance properties of polyurethane foams makes them essential in many consumer goods. Thus, there is much effort going into creating a more environmentally friendly production process for polyurethane’s main building blocks, polyols and isocyanates. While much…

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Creating ultrathin gold films with the largest continuous area

Thin gold films offer a broad range of benefits for electronics due to their high electrical conductivity and transparency. Current manufacturing methods are unable to achieve gold films thinner than 10 nm, and are also limited in the area and…

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Business News: February 2025

Plant Watch Messer to construct $70-million air-separation unit in Arkansas January 15, 2025 — Messer Group GmbH (Bad Soden, Germany; www.messergroup.com) has announced a strategic investment of over $70 million to construct a state-of-the-art air separation unit (ASU) in Berryville,…

Facts At Your Fingertips: Blending and Segregation Mechanisms for Solids

In solids-handling, blending (combining two or more materials to achieve a combined product) and segregation (the separation of particles into distinct zones according to particle size, shape, density or other physical attributes) are competing processes. This one-page reference outlines common…

AI’s potential in the CPI

One of the aspects of my job that I really enjoy is keeping in touch with new and advanced technologies emerging from the chemical process industries (CPI) — an interest that traces back to my roots as an R&D engineer.…