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Borealis commissions naphtha-storage cavern in Finland

Borealis Group AG (Vienna, Austria) announced that its new naphtha cavern in Porvoo, Finland has now been safely commissioned as of October 2020. Having invested around EUR 25 million in the construction of this 80,000-m3 facility, Borealis can now source…

Lummus awarded contract for Hengyi Industries’ polypropylene unit in Brunei

Lummus Technology, LLC (Houston) announced that its Novolen business has been awarded a contract by Hengyi Industries for a large-scale polypropylene unit in Brunei. Lummus' scope includes the technology license for 1,000,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) polypropylene unit, as well…

Sinopec Qilu starts up first DuPont alkylation unit using new reactor design

DuPont Clean Technologies (Wilmington, Del.) announced that the Stratco alkylation unit at the Sinopec Qilu refinery in Zibo, Shandong Province, China, successfully completed the performance test, certifying that the unit is meeting required performance guarantees. The Stratco alkylation unit at…

U.S. chemical production expanded in September, ACC says

According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com), the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) rose 0.8 percent in September, following a 0.8 percent gain in August and a 1.0 percent increase in July. During September, chemical…

U.S. specialty chemical markets stable to end Q3, ACC says

The American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) today reported that with the recovery in the U.S. economy slowing, U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes were stable in September, off from a revised (and stronger) 0.9 percent gain in August and…

Nouryon-Atul JV receives clearance for MCA expansion in Gujarat

Anaven, a 50-50 joint venture (JV) of Nouryon (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Atul Ltd. (Valsad, India), has received environmental clearance from the Indian authorities for the production of 32,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of monochloroacetic acid (MCA) at its…

Johnson Matthey completes new plant in China for fuel-cell components

Johnson Matthey plc (JM; London, U.K.) is expanding its fuel cell operations into China with a £7.5-million facility to manufacture critical components for customers in the region. The facility is now complete, with commissioning now in progress. JM expects the…

Recently Published Books for November 2020

The following titles are recently published books of potential interest to various parts of the chemical process industries (CPI) Human Factor and Reliability Analysis to Prevent Losses in Industrial Processes: An Operational Culture Perspective. By Salvador Avila Filho, Ivone Conceicao…

2020 CEPCI Updates: August (prelim.) and July (final)

The preliminary value for the CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI) for August 2020 (the most recent data available) increased by a small margin compared to the previous month’s value. It was the second straight increase after a three-month period of…

Covestro receives first delivery of renewable phenol from Borealis

As part of a strategic collaboration, Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) received a first delivery of 1,000 tons of renewable phenol from Borealis Group AG (Vienna, Austria), produced with renewable hydrocarbons from Neste Corp. (Espoo, Finland; www.neste.com). Neste produces these ISCC…