The first issue of this publication in September of 1902, then titled Electrochemical Industry, contained this statement from professor C.F. Burgess: “Chemical manufacturing was a number of years ago considered best developed when the processes were so simple that no…
The value of the 2022 Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index (CEPCI) exceeded the previous year’s value by a significant margin. The rise in the 2022 CEPCI echoes the large increase observed for the 2021 annual CEPCI value, and places the…
The U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) rose by 0.7% in February, following declines of 2.4% in December and 0.6% in January, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). “February marked a slight rebound and rise…
LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea) supplied reverse osmosis (RO) membranes to China’s largest salt-lake lithium extraction project. The company has shipped more than 10,000 RO membranes to the Guoan lithium extraction project led by CITIC Group, China’s largest state-owned…
Carbon nanomaterial developer Canatu Oy (Vantaa, Finland) has upgraded its carbon nanotube (CNT) film manufacturing to meet the rising demand for ADAS heater products in the automotive industry. Canatu has improved its step-and-repeat (SAR) CNT film production line by adding…
The preliminary value for the CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI) for January 2023 (most recent available) declined from the previous month’s value, continuing a series of seven consecutive monthly decreases in the CEPCI overall value. In addition, the final value…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) has broken ground on a new production complex at its Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China, that includes plants for glacial acrylic acid (GAA), butyl acrylate (BA) and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA). Planned to come on stream by…
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), which was passed into law last August, directs federal funding to a variety of sectors in the forms of grants, loans and tax incentives for corporations, and to a lesser extent to…
Plant Watch Arlanxeo starts up new polybutadiene production line in Brazil February 14, 2023 — Arlanxeo B.V. (Maastricht, the Netherlands; www.arlanxeo.com) opened a new polybutadiene production line in Brazil. The new production line supplements Arlanxeo’s existing production capacity in Brazil…
Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) will build its largest thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) site in Zhuhai, China. With an overall investment in the low three-digit-million euro range, it will also be the company’s largest investment in its TPU business. TPUs are a…