The manufacturing landscape is evolving rapidly, marked by ever-increasing competition and consumer demands, unpredictable supply chain disruptions, and the persistent challenge of employee turnover. In this dynamic environment, optimizing processes and tightening production efficiency has become a top priority for…
UBE Corp. (Tokyo) announced that the company’s Board of Directors resolved to construct a dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) plant in the U.S. It also decided to increase capital in UBE C1 Chemicals America, Inc. (UCCA), a…
Arlanxeo (Maastricht, the Netherlands) announced the planned construction of a hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) plant in Changzhou, China. With a nameplate annual production capacity of 5,000 tons, the first phase of construction will allow for the production of 2,500…
Henkel AG (Düsseldorf, Germany) has announced the construction of its first integrated innovation and technology center in Latin America, located in Jundiaí, Sao Paulo. The new center aims to create a collaborative ecosystem for developing innovations and solutions for the…
AkzoNobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) has opened a new €26-million manufacturing plant in Faisalabad – the company’s largest investment in Pakistan to date. The 25-acre site, which has facilities for making decorative paint, wood finishes, automotive and specialty coatings, coil…
Spider silk protein generates significant development interest due to its unique combination of properties, including high toughness and strength, extensibility, biocompatibility, thermal stability and others. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI; Troy, N.Y.; www.rpi.edu) have developed what is said to…
Incorporating silicon into the anodes of electric vehicle (EV) batteries can result in lighter and longer-range batteries. However, this process requires large volumes of silane (SiH4) gas, the vast majority of which is currently produced in China. Now, a new…
A wastewater treatment plant operated by Orange County (Calif.) Sanitation District is the site of the first installment, at a commercial facility, of a new supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) technology capable of producing clean water and minerals from waste slurries.…
Chemists at the University of Amsterdam (UvA; the Netherlands; www.uva.nl) have developed an autonomous chemical-synthesis robot with an integrated artificial-intelligence (AI)-driven machine learning unit. Dubbed “RoboChem,” the benchtop device can outperform a human chemist in terms of speed and accuracy,…
The Emission Free Pulping program aims to significantly reduce biomass burning and increase the product yield of wood material used for pulping from approximately 50 to around 70%. The five-year, €15-million program is jointly led by VTT Technical Research Centre…