Chemical Engineering
BASF announces capacity expansion for polyisobutenes
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) will increase the production capacity for its medium-molecular weight polyisobutenes, marketed under the tradename OPPANOL B, at its site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, by 25%. The investment comes in response to the rising global demand for high-quality…
Wacker completes hydrogen chloride capacity expansion at Burghausen site
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) recently finished expanding its production of hyperpure hydrogen chloride at its Burghausen site in Germany. The facility which was commissioned in mid-July significantly increased overall production. Buyers for the newly added production volumes come from…
Encina partners with Veolia for Pennsylvania Circular Manufacturing Facility
Encina Development Group, LLC (Encina), a producer of ISCC+ circular chemicals from end-of-life plastics, announced an agreement with global water treatment expert Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions, which will engineer, deliver, operate and maintain a world-class water treatment system for…
New solvents derived from biomass
Last month, Circa Group A/S (Oslo, Norway; www.circa-group.com) applied for patents for two new solvents for CO2 capture processes. The solvents, named Furatech:1 and Furatech:2, were developed over the last 12 months as part of the company’s platform molecule, levoglucosenone…
Chementator briefs
ISOPROPANOL Cepsa Química, S.A. (Palos de la Frontera, Huelva, Spain; www.cepsa.com) is constructing the first production plant to produce isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol), from renewable or circular materials, which the company says will make it the most competitive, innovative and environmentally…
Electrochemical amalgamation effectively removes mercury from concentrated H2SO4
It is well known that mercury is not only toxic, but is also highly mobile. As a result, Hg emissions from both industrial processes (gold mining, combustion of fossil fuels, cement production, waste incineration and more), as well as natural…
Carbon nanotube coating could expand the applications for superlubricity
When a sliding interface experiences a coefficient of friction (CoF) below 0.01, the situation is said to have superlubricity. In the past, superlubricity has been limited to the microscale in controlled environments, and to ceramic surfaces with polar-fluid lubrication. Now,…
Observing particle concentrations and velocities inside a fluidized bed
Fluidized beds are used in a variety of industries for combustion, drying, catalytic cracking and other processes. However, the process that occurs inside a fluidized bed is extremely complex and — due to a lack of effective measurement techniques —…
Impact of Particle-Size Control on Bulk-Solids Flow Behavior
Crushing and screening of solids are essential to many solids-handling processes, but engineers must be mindful about how those actions will affect flow behavior of the bulk material When it comes to processing bulk solids, (particle) size matters. Almost all…
Tower Doctor: Can the Cure be as Bad as the Illness?
Henry Kister shares lessons learned from troubleshooting distillation towers During a course that I was presenting in Houston one year, a participant asked me the following at the end of one of the sessions: “Do you have experience with BX-type…