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Business News: October 2026
Plant Watch Evonik breaks ground on €80-million biotechnology expansion in Slovakia September 14, 2026 — Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has broken ground on a new biotechnology expansion project at its Fermas site in Slovakia, part of the €80-million…
Industrial Heat Pumps for Waste-Heat Upgrading
Electrification of industrial processes using heat pumps is moving from niche applications toward the mainstream, but challenges to their implementation remain Decarbonization initiatives have focused attention on the production of process heat for industrial operations without the combustion of fossil…
Testing Hydrogen Infrastructure Materials: A Practical Framework
As hydrogen infrastructure expands, existing material-qualification frameworks must keep pace with hydrogen-specific degradation risks, such as embrittlement, stress corrosion cracking, permeation and accelerated aging Hydrogen infrastructure deployment is speeding up in the chemical process industries (CPI). However, the material qualification…
Offtake agreement inked for system that produces methanol from stranded methane economically
In late August, technology developer Emvolon, a spinout company from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, Mass.; www.mit.edu), signed an offtake agreement with Freepoint Commodities LLC (www.freepoint.com) for methanol produced commercially via Emvolon’s technology starting in spring 2027. The…
Recovering Valuable Chemicals from Vapor Streams Using Absorption
Absorption can pull a high-value component out of an air stream and return it for reuse, often at a lower cost than destroying it Many chemical and biological processes produce a vapor stream that is primarily air, but contains a…
Toray Industries develops first solvent-based recycling technology for recovering PPS from waste
Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; www.toray.com) announced that it has developed what it believes is the industry’s first solvent-based recycling technology to recover polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) from waste materials. The technology selectively dissolves and separates PPS from the materials while…
Air Liquide invests 170 million euros to supply ultra-high-purity gases to semiconductor manufacturer in Japan
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) today announced a new investment of more than 170 million euros to supply ultra-high purity gases to a leading semiconductor manufacturer in Japan. Under a long-term agreement, the Group will support the expansion of its…
Westlake to close PVC plant in Cologne, Germany
Westlake Corp. (Houston, Texas; www.westlake.com) announced today that, in light of challenging market conditions, the Company is taking action to improve profitability by closing its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Cologne, Germany. Chemical production in Europe continues to face difficult conditions, including…
Gen-H Energy and Hycamite sign MoU for power project in Finland based on methane pyrolysis
GEN-H Energy SL (Madrid, Spain; www.gen-h.com) is planning a 200–300-megawatt balancing power project in Kotka, Finland, where electricity will be generated from natural gas without carbon dioxide emissions. Hycamite (Kokkola, Finland; www.hycamite.com) equipment – based on methane pyrolysis – will…
Environmental Controls Can Reduce Operating Costs, Not Just Emissions
For a long time, air-pollution control equipment was budgeted the way a company budgets for fire insurance: a necessary cost with no expectation of a return. That framing is outdated, and for a growing number of manufacturers, it is costing…