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…
Intelligent — and thorough — preparation of a process-design-basis document can make the difference between a high-quality design for a chemical-process project and a poor one. The process-design-basis document represents the owner’s instructions to the design engineering organization…
It’s an old saw, but I’ve long held that process development is very much a team effort. Developing safe, robust and scaleable chemical processes calls for close collaboration between synthesis chemists, process development engineers and pilot plant personnel.…
Qatar Petroleum (Doha; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-542) and Norsk Hydro A/S (Oslo, Norway; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-543) have formed a joint venture company, Qatalum, to build and operate what is claimed as the largest, initial-phase greenfield aluminum smelter ever constructed. The smelter will have an annual…
Early next year, Nippoh Chemicals Co. (Tokyo; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-532) plans to build a 1,000-m.t./yr plant for producing the pharmaceutical precursor trimethyl orthoacetate (1,1,1-trimethoxyethane). The facility will utilize a continuous-flow, microreactor-based process that Nippoh Chemicals developed in cooperation with professor Jun-ichi Yoshida…
For any of us who have kept up in recent years with the business news (happenings at Enron and some major Wall Street firms, say), it seems safe to assume that, nowadays at least, ethical behavior and personal honesty are…
Typical process utilities include electricity, process steam, refrigerants, compressed air, cooling water, heated water, hot oil, process water, demineralized water, municipal water, and river, lake, or ocean water. For preliminary cost estimates, waste disposal cost can also be…
Engineers often need to predict the cost of piping and pipefitting associated with a process unit. Even though detailed prices are available, finding and organizing them takes time and costs money. For those needing a quick method of…
A patented moisture-control technology (MCT) developed by CSIRO Plant Industry (edlinks.chemengonline.com/5827-534), with cooperation from Stellar Films Group (both Melbourne, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5827-535), has shown it can maintain field freshness of selected fruit and vegetables during extended periods of storage and shipping.…
Solvay (Brussels, Belgium; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5827-536) is planning to build a new plant for producing epichlorohydrin at its Tavaux, France, site. When the facility starts up in the first half of 2007, it will produce 10,000 m.t./yr of epichlorohydrin using Solvay’s Epicerol…