China, one of the world's great growth stories, may become the world's largest consumer market. As that potential unfolds, petrochemical activity and investment are sure to be key drivers. China is now the 6th largest economy in the…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Co. (MHI; Mihara, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-531) has developed an integrated piping-and-instrument system, called M-iPIS, which makes small, complex piping systems from a single plate block. Analogous to the manufacturing of integrated circuit boards, M-iPIS realizes not only cost…
If your estimate for a project's capital cost is too high or too low, incomplete or wrong, a poorly developed scope is the mostly likely cause. In almost all cases, project cost estimating is more accurate than the…
During the first half of this decade, painting a rosy salary picture for chemical engineers has been impossible at times, and at best required a creative flair. Forget gaining ground — amid salary freezes or raises that lagged…
Anyone who has ever attended the Achema exhibition-congress, which showcases products and know-how for chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology in Frankfurt, Germany, every three years, is aware from personal experience of the vast scope and high stature of…
During career coaching to hundreds of individuals, I’ve come to realize that the people who take longest to find meaningful employment tend to commit the same blunders. Singled out here are ten of the most egregious career-stalling maneuvers. If you…
Nippoh Chemicals Co. (Tokyo; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-539), is developing a continuous, vapor-phase process to produce hydroiodic acid as an alternative to the conventional liquid-phase batch process. Over the next few months, the company will test the new process in a 30-m.t./yr pilot…
Although many new biodiesel plants are sprouting up around the world, Perstorp Oxo AB’s (Stenungsund Sweden) 160,000 m.t./yr rapeseed-methyl-esters (RME) facility, now under construction at Stenungsund, will be the first to have a reactor made from duplex stainless steel. The…
Bayer MaterialScience AG (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-546) has developed a new process for producing toluene diisocyanate (TDI), a precursor for making flexible polyurethane foam. Without disclosing details, BMS says the process reduces investment costs by 20–30%, and energy consumption by…
ATMI Life Sciences (ATMI; Hoegaarden, Belgium; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-549) and Pierre Guérin SAS (Mauze sur le Mignon, France; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-550) have formed an alliance to design, manufacture and market disposable fermentors and bioreactors. ATMI’s proprietary mixing system (which features a paddle integrated into…