Plant Watch Dow announces investment plans to increase global silicones production September 12, 2018 — The Dow Chemical Company (Dow; Midland, Mich.; www.dow-dupont.com) will make investments in its global silicones businesses, including plans to build a new hydroxyl functional siloxane…
The preliminary value for the July 2018 CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) increased slightly compared to the previous month’s value, although, due to revisions in the values, the final June value was adjusted downward by a…
The Siemens technology group (Munich, Germany; www.siemens.com) and Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB; Aubagne, France; www.sartorius.com), a leading international supplier for the biopharmaceutical industry, have agreed on long-term cooperation in the area of automation. This agreement provides that Sartorius Stedim Biotech…
The following list of recently published book titles shown here are relevant to professionals in various parts of the chemical process industries (CPI) Biotechnology of Metals: Principles, Recovery Methods and Environmental Concerns, By K.A. Natarajan, Elsevier ScienceDirect, 2018, 502 pages,…
The results of a recent survey (2018 Pulse of Engineering Survey*) give a snapshot of how over 2,200 survey respondents view their current work environments. The respondents were predominantly design engineers (37%), followed by those in research and development, consulting,…
The kilogram is the last of the SI units (International System of Units) still defined by a physical object, rather than defined in terms of universal fundamental constants of nature. However, this will change in November 2018, as a multi-year…
The preliminary value for the June 2018 CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; most recent available) once again increased compared to the previous month’s value, continuing a string of monthly increases since the beginning of 2018. All four of the major…
Intelligent Sensor Management (ISM) is an innovative solution for analytical process parameters that simplifies sensor handling and improves maintenance management. This translates into increased process reliability and reduced operating costs. ISM’s wide parameter breadth (pH, ORP, O2, CO2, conductivity, turbidity,…
pH is a critical parameter in many aspects of production: from setting the conditions for a reaction to happen, to the management of the reaction’s process quality, and from sustaining process equipment integrity, to avoiding environmental pollution and health…
I first visited Achema some years ago, while I was working in Europe as an R&D project leader for a large, international chemical company. It was my first year living in the Netherlands on an expatriate assignment from the U.S.,…