Chemical Engineering
BASF expands e-coat manufacturing facility in Mangalore, India
BASF SE (Ludiwgshafen, Germany) announced that its Coatings division has expanded the e-coat manufacturing facility at its Mangalore site. This strategic expansion is driven by the growing demand for e-coat solutions by local automotive OEM customers in India, as well…
Imerys to acquire diatomite and perlite business from Calgon Carbon
Imerys S.A. (Paris) announced it has entered into exclusive negotiations with Chemviron, a subsidiary of Calgon Carbon Corp., to acquire its European diatomite and perlite business. Through this acquisition, Imerys would extend and complement its European footprint in diatomite and…
Linde to supply industrial gases for world’s first large-scale green-steel plant in Sweden
Linde plc (Guildford, U.K.) will invest approximately $150 million to build, own and operate an on-site air separation unit (ASU) in Boden, northern Sweden. Linde will supply oxygen, nitrogen and argon to H2 Green Steel’s integrated plant, which will use…
Arkema acquires Dow’s flexible packaging laminating adhesives business
Arkema S.A. (Colombes, France) has agreed to acquire Dow’s flexible packaging laminating adhesives business, one of the leading producers of adhesives for the flexible packaging market, generating annual sales of around US$250 million. The proposed acquisition will significantly expand Arkema’s…
INEOS completes purchase of LyondellBasell’s Ethylene Oxide & Derivatives business
INEOS Oxide and LyondellBasell (LYB; Rotterdam, the Netherlands) have completed the sale of LYB’s Ethylene Oxide & Derivatives (EO&D) business and associated production facilities located in Bayport, Texas to INEOS. Tobias Hannemann, CEO of INEOS Oxide said, “We are pleased…
Chementator Briefs
RO Membranes Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; www.toray.com) has developed a highly durable reverse osmosis (RO) membrane that is said to offer double the resistance to cleaning chemicals of conventional counterparts. This reduces performance degradation from membrane wear and simplifies…
A next-generation membrane for durable fuel cells and electrolyzers
Hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers will be crucial technologies as the global energy transition progresses. However, both devices are often hampered by issues with durability and material costs — mainly associated with their membrane elements — which have slowed their…
Storing and processing anhydrous hydrogen chloride as an ionic liquid
Hydrogen chloride is an important byproduct of the chemical industry, with over 9-million ton/yr generated by industrial chlorination processes, such as the production of chloromethanes and polymers (polyurethanes and polycarbonates). Although HCl can be easily recovered by gas scrubbing with…
Electrochemical sensor selectively detects dangerous bacteria
Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt (www.uni-frankfurt.de) and Kiel University (both Germany; www.uni-kiel.de) have developed a new sensor for the detection of bacteria. It is based on a chip with a surface coating that ensures only very specific microorganisms, such as…
Improving sodium-ion batteries with nanocellular graphene
Nanocellular graphene (NCG) is a specialized form of graphene that achieves a large specific surface area by stacking multiple layers of graphene and controlling its internal structure with a nanoscale cellular morphology. Although the material has the potential to improve…