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…
Free trade agreements, global manufacturing standards and the Internet have made it possible for companies to do business in countries they would not have considered 20 years ago. Open is a world of opportunity, but for processors of…
BASF Future Business GmbH (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-536) has entered a licensing and joint-development agreement with Rieke Metals, Inc. (Lincoln, Neb.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-537) and will soon start the industrial-scale production and sales of organic semiconductors (OSCs; polythiophenes). High-purity polythiophenes will be made…
SK Corp. (Seoul, South Korea; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-542) has developed a new process to increase the yield of olefins from the catalytic cracking of paraffinic feeds (paraffins-rich naphtha). The Advanced Catalytic Olefin (ACO) process uses a proprietary zeolite-type granular catalyst in a…
Last month, Diversa Corp. (San Diego, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-546) and Celunol Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-547) signed a definitive merger agreement to create what is claimed as a new leader in the emerging cellulose-based ethanol industry. The combined company will be…
Last month, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; Beijing; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-549) and Syntroleum Corp. (Tulsa, Okla.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-550) signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint technology-development effort tor advanced natural gas-to-liqquids (GTL) and coal-to-liquids (CTL) technologies. Syntroleum will provide its…
DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6893-553) has commercialized a patented process that removes more than 97% of trace levels of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), its homologues and direct precursors meeting the voluntary U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA; Washington, D.C.) 2010/15 PFOA Stewardship program…