A demonstration plant in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, will produce hydrochloric acid and iron pellets from the iron-chloride leach liquor generated by the production of synthetic rutile, the common mineral form of titanium dioxide. The plant will utilize a…
Nippon Paper Industries Co. (Nippon Paper; Tokyo; www.nipponpapergroup.com) is constructing a verification plant for the production of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) at the Chemical Div. of its Iwakuni Mill. Scheduled to start up in October, the facility will have a production…
Tantalum and niobium, which are often found in complex ores, are essentially chemically inert metals whose recovery involves some harsh measures: typically dissolution of the metals concentrate in a mixture of concentrated hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids, followed by solvent extraction…
An improved H2SO4 process developed by CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has now been licensed to three companies, all in China. The first licensee was Ningbo Haiyue New Material Co. Ltd., which is building a 600,000-m.t./yr plant near Ningbo City,…
Industrial uses of high-intensity ultrasound have grown tremendously over the past 25 years, says Kenneth Suslick, professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one of the pioneers in the field. Ultrasonic welding of plastics is universal,…
China’s largest private chemical EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor, Wison Engineering Ltd. (Wison; Shanghai; www.wison.com) has recently introduced details about its proprietary butadiene technology, which is set for commercialization. The process aims to meet the anticipated growth in annual butadiene…
Minimizing process variability is an important component of a plant’s profitability. The performance of control valves within process control loops has a significant impact on maintaining consistent processes. This refresher outlines some of the important aspects of control-valve performance, including…
Polypropylene (PP) is one of the world’s most widely used polymers, second only to polyethylene in terms of global demand. The global market for polypropylene is over 60 million metric tons per year, and it is utilized in a…
This company’s magnetic-drive pumps now exceed driving power of 515 kW, with flowrates of 3,500 m3/h, delivery heads of 160 m and system pressures from PN 16 to 400. They can operate at temperatures of 450°C without external cooling and…
The Hydro-Cell Metering Solutions line is comprised of six metering pumps ranging in capacity from 0.32 to 894.6 gal/h (1.21 to 3,386.4 L/h), with pressure ratings from 50 to 2,599 psi (3.4–172 bars). These pumps use variable frequency-drive electronic-flow adjustment…