Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany; www.merck.com) announced that it acquired the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) patent portfolio for display applications from Konica Minolta Inc. Merck offers many advanced display chemistries, including OLED and quantum dot (QLED) technologies. The acquired portfolio comprises…
Wison Engineering Services Co. Ltd. (Shanghai; www.wison-engineering.com) has announced that the first phase of Connell Chemical Industry Ltd.'s new plant has successfully started up and produced on-spec ethylene and propylene. This plant was built by Wison Engineering through an engineering,…
BP plc (London; www.bp.com) has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with one of China’s leading producers of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic, China Resources Chemical Innovative Materials Holdings Limited (CRC). CRC is already an important customer for BP’s production of PTA…
Messer Group GmbH (Bad Soden, Germany; www.messergroup.com) announced that Paragon Partners, one of the leading, independent private equity firms in Europe, has acquired all shares in Castolin Eutectic (www.castolin.com), Messer’s wholly owned business focused on wear protection and repair solutions…
Linde (Guildford, U.K.; www.linde.com) announced that it has leveraged its extensive technology portfolio to sign a new contract with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the largest refiner in India. Praxair India Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Linde, will…
Sekisui Chemical Co. (Osaka, Japan; www.sekisuichemical.com) and INCJ, Ltd. have established a joint venture (JV) called Sekisui Bio Refinery Co. Ltd. with the aim of verification and commercialization of the technology converting combustible waste into ethanol using the microbial catalyst…
Sophisticated supercomputing systems can process massive numbers of calculations related to bioinformatics, epidemiology, and molecular modeling, and are expected to help scientists develop answers to complex scientific questions about COVID-19 in hours or days versus weeks or months. Now, some…
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (MCI; Tokyo; www.jp.mitsuichemicals.com) announced that it will establish a new plant within Osaka Works, Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture, to produce the APEL series of cyclic olefin copolymers. With its major application in smartphone camera lenses, APEL has seen…
When plants are built with excessive design margins, problems can arise when operating under turndown conditions. This article helps explain how overdesign tends to occur and how to avoid problems when operating at turndown Operating under turndown can be problematic,…
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) will invest close to €200 million to build production capacities in the Science Parks of Tainan and Hsinchu, respectively located in the South and the North of Taiwan. Under a long-term commitment with a semiconductor…