Capital intensity is among the current constraints on industrial-scale fermentation, because the hardware for steam sterilization of bioreactors is complex and expensive. After recently emerging from stealth status, the startup company Biosphere (Oakland, Calif.; www.biosphere.io) has launched a new reactor…
Advanced technologies help pharmaceutical and semiconductor producers achieve excellence Chemical processors are under increased pressure to achieve operational excellence, which involves a balance of increasing yield, improving quality and reducing waste, while also cutting operational costs. Processors in high-purity industries…
An ExxonMobil Corp. (Spring, Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com) adhesive-resin finishing facility in Baton Rouge, La. has become the first commercial process-manufacturing facility to be controlled by an open, standards-based process automation system. This is a departure from the closed, proprietary systems currently…
AGAE Technologies (Corvallis; Ore.; www.agaetech.com), a U.S.-based leader in rhamnolipid production and technology, with its partners, has officially opened the largest retrofitted manufacturing plant complex in Asia. This manufacturing complex, covering 41,000 square feet, has the capacity to produce over…
Sipchem (Sahara International Petrochemical Company; Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia; www.sipchem.com) and LyondellBasell (LYB; Houston, Tex.; www.lyondellbasell.com) have been awarded a feedstock allocation from the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia supporting a joint feasibility study for a world-scale mixed feed…
KBR (Houston, Tex.; www.kbr.com) announced Feb. 26 that it has been awarded a contract for Project Management Consultancy (PMC) services by AMUFERT to support the development of its fertilizer plant in Soyo, Angola. As part of this transformative $2 billion project, KBR…
Ceramics UK, the trade association for the U.K. ceramics industry, announced a landmark achievement in its ‘Demonstrating Hydrogen in the Ceramics Sector’ project. The project's custom-built pilot kiln, designed to explore the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel for…
Combustion specialist Fives (Paris, France) installed its first e-Ductflame hybrid burner in Saint-Gobain's h-old site in Biandrate, Italy, which produces pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes. Fives' e-Ductflame technology represents the Group’s first patented hybrid e-burner, which allows the replacement of natural gas…
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (Waltham, Mass.) announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement with Solventum to acquire Solventum’s Purification & Filtration business for approximately $4.1 billion in cash. Solventum’s Purification & Filtration business is a leading provider…
Evertis Packaging Solutions (Portalegre, Portugal), the world’s largest PET multilayer film supplier for the food industry, unveiled plans to build a new leading edge production plant in Columbia, SC. With a total investment of $100 million, the new facility is…