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Chemical Engineering

Hengyi Industries selects Univation’s technology for new polyethylene project in Brunei

Hengyi Industries Sdn. Bhd., has selected Univation Technologies’ (Houston) UNIPOL PE Process for its world-scale 600,000-ton/yr polyethylene (PE) plant to be located in Palau Muara Besar, Brunei. The new PE plant will be integrated into a larger refinery and petrochemicals…

Australia unveils national network of hydrogen-technology clusters

A network of regional hydrogen technology clusters has today been unveiled across Australia, as part of a drive to establish a nationwide hydrogen cluster. Spearheaded by National Energy Resources Australia (NERA), the national cluster (which would operate as a virtual…

Lukoil commissions high-viscosity oils plant at Volgogad Refinery complex

Lukoil (Moscow, Russia) has commissioned a new production complex at its Volgograd Refinery. Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District Vladimir Ustinov, Russian Minister of Energy Nikolai Shulginov, Governor of the Volgograd region Andrei Bocharov and President of LUKOIL…

Stepan acquires Invista’s aromatic polyester polyol business

Stepan Co. (Northfield, Ill.) announced that it has purchased Invista's (Wichita, Kan.) aromatic polyester polyol business and associated assets.  Included in the transaction are two manufacturing sites, one in Wilmington, NC (United States) and the other in Vlissingen (the Netherlands), and…

Nanoscale uniformity of desalination membranes

Reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination membranes use a polyamide selective layer formed on a microporous support to separate water molecules from salts. Past efforts to characterize the polyamide membrane structure have been limited by the internal variability of the selective layer. Now,…

A microreactor for continuous formation of Grignard reagents

Today, synthetic routes to about 10% of the top 50 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) include one or more Grignard reactions, which are used to form C–C bonds. Normally, the reaction is performed batch-wise in continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs), with Grignard…

A major project targets sustainable urea production

A consortium, led by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO; The Hague; www.tno.nl), has received an exceptional grant of €21 million from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program to investigate and develop the potential of…

Bacteria for wastewater treatment

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (www.nus.edu.sg), led by associate professor He Jianzhong, have found a new strain of bacterium called Thauera sp. strain SND5, which is capable of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification and phosphate removal from wastewater. The…

Magnetic field cures adhesives faster with less energy

Conventional adhesives, such as epoxy, are designed to cure using moisture, heat and light. Curing is necessary to cross-link and bond the glue with the two secured surfaces as the glue crystallizes and hardens. Now, scientists from Nanyang Technological University…

Technology Profile: Butyl Acrylate from Acrylic Acid and Butanol

This column is based on “Butyl Acrylate Production from Acrylic Acid and Butanol – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/butyl-acrylate-production-cost. Butyl acrylate, the butyl ester of acrylic acid, is among the most industrially…