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Specialty chemical market volumes drop in February, ACC report says

U.S. specialty chemical market volumes fell 0.6% in February after a 1.0 decline in January, continuing the soft start to 2015, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). “The…

Air Liquide process technology chosen for BASF’s U.S. gas-to-propylene project

Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions, the Engineering and Construction activity of Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) has announced that it has been selected by BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) to supply their gas-to-propylene (GTP) project with Air Liquide’s MegaMethanol and…

Foundation of Lauda Scientific as an independent company

From March 1, 2015 the full subsidiary Lauda Scientific GmbH (Lauda-Königshofen, Germany; www.lauda.de) will take over the development, sales and customer service for Lauda measuring instruments. For the managing director Gunther Wobser, this new foundation constitutes consistent development: “With this…

Amec Foster Wheeler wins two U.S. environmental contracts

Amec Foster Wheeler (London, U.K.; www.amecfw.com) has been awarded two contracts by Freeport-McMoRan Inc. for the design and supply of a new wet-fluegas-desulfurization system at their existing copper smelter facility in Miami, Arizona. The value of the contracts has not…

Intergraph acquires Norwegian software company OhmTech

Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, Ala.; www.intergraph.com) Process, Power & Marine has acquired OhmTech A/S (Stavanger, Norway), a provider of pressure-vessel design software for more than 30 years. OhmTech’s technical and development staff in Norway have joined Intergraph as part of the…

PPG completes resin-production plant in Brazil

PPG Industries, Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com) announced the the completion of a $40-million, 65,000-ft2 plant for onsite resin production at its Sumaré, São Paulo, Brazil, coatings manufacturing facility. “The expansion of the Sumaré facility demonstrates PPG’s long-term commitment to our…

Indorama acquires PET producer in Thailand

Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL; Bangkok, Thailand; www.indorama.net) announced that its subsidiary, Indorama Petrochem Ltd., Thailand, has signed a definitive share-purchase agreement with Bangkok Cable Co., to acquire a 94.91% equity stake in Bangkok Polyester Public Co. (BPC). BPC…

Fluor awarded contract for megaproject in Azerbaijan

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has awarded Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) a contract to provide project-management contractor services for its new oil-and-gas processing and petrochemical complex (OGPC) in Azerbaijan. Fluor will book the contract for an…

First propane-dehydrogenation application for Clariant catalyst material goes online in China

Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) has announced that its Heat Generating Material (HGM) for the Catofin process technology for producing propylene from propane demonstrated excellent performance at the propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant of Ningbo Haiyue New Material Co. Limited in Ningbo…

BASF signs sublicense agreement with ExxonMobil for H2S-removal technology

BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co. (EMRE) have concluded an agreement on EMRE’s Flexsorb technology. The agreement provides BASF with the right to sublicense the technology and supply the related solvent to third parties. The…