Following up on its success with the world’s first commercial plant to use a new oil-recycling process, Puralube GmbH (Elsteraue, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-538) plans to build a second plant near the first one, in Zeitz/Elsteraue. Scheduled for startup at the end…
Compressors and Modern Process Applications. By Heinz P. Bloch. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Web: wiley.com. 2006. 339 pages, $99.95. Reviewed by Stanley S. Grossel, Process Safety & Design, Inc., Clifton, N.J. This is…
Dow Epoxy, a business unit of Dow Chemical Co. (Midland Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-541) has selected Shanghai Chemical Industry Park as the site for its 150,000-m.t./yr glycerine-to-epichlorohydrin (GTE) plant and a 100,000-m.t./yr liquid-epoxy-resins plant. Both plants are expected to startup in the…
Last month, Air Liquide S.A. (Paris; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-543) acquired Lurgi AG (Frankfurt, Germany) from the GEA Group AG (Bochum, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6895-544). Although subject to approval by the European and U.S. competition authorities, the acquisition will enable the acceleration of growth in…
Improved profitability in the refining industry has brought a wave of investment aimed at raising capacity, boosting product quality and operating flexibility, and increasing refiners’ ability to deal with difficult feedstocks. Greater integration with petrochemical complexes and, in…
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. (MES; Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-540), in cooperation with Chugoku Electric Power Co. (Hiroshima, Japan), is building a pilot plant that will produce 5-m.t./d of natural gas hydrate (NGH). The plant, located at Chugoku Electric's Yanai Power…
Mascoma Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-545) and Royal Nedalco (Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands) have signed a license and joint-development agreement with the goal of commercializing ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. Nedalco has developed modified yeasts that can produce ethanol from all…
It's a simple matter of fact: a chemical process plant operates by the products and services of numerous - and, unavoidably, competing - vendors. Since the resulting compatibility issues only hamper productivity, vendors, EPC firms and owner/operators alike tried to…
Last month, the Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-546) introduced Propylene Glycol Renewable (PGR), a monopropylene glycol that is made from glycerin generated during the production of biodiesel. Dow is conducting PGR trials with customers and anticipates having limited commercial…
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-547) and FuelCell Energy Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6894-548) have begun construction on an advanced hydrogen-energy demonstration station. The station, funded in part from the DOE, will demonstrate tri-generation of hydrogen, electric power and heat from…