Chemical Engineering
ExxonMobil doubles polypropylene production at Baton Rouge
ExxonMobil Corp. (Houston) announced the successful startup of its new polypropylene production unit at the Polyolefins Plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The unit increases polypropylene production capacity along the Gulf Coast by 450,000 metric tons per year, meeting growing demand…
120 years and going strong
This year marks Chemical Engineering’s 120th anniversary. At this extraordinary milestone, I paused to look into the history of the publication and its evolution to where we are now. The magazine evolved, changing its name to reflect changes and combinations…
Technip Energies awarded contract for TotalEnergies’ SAF production platform
Technip Energies (Prais) has been awarded a contract by TotalEnergies for the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) at Grandpuits platform in France. This contract covers the Engineering, Procurement services and Construction assistance (EPsCa) for the conversion of the Grandpuits…
Honeywell doubles production capacity for Solstice ze in Baton Rouge
Honeywell International Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.) announced its Baton Rouge, LA., facility has doubled production capacity of Honeywell Solstice ze (HFO-1234ze), an ultra-low-global-warming-potential (GWP) and energy-efficient solution compared to other current technologies. Solstice ze is used in foam insulation, as an aerosol…
DSM begins construction of new manufacturing plant in Scotland
Royal DSM N.V. (Herleen, the Netherlands) began construction of a new manufacturing facility at its site in Dalry, Scotland. The plant will significantly increase global production of Bovaer, DSM’s unique methane-reducing feed additive for cattle. In an official groundbreaking ceremony…
Elementis sells its Chromium business
Elementis plc (London) announced that it has agreed to sell its Chromium business to Yildirim Group for an enterprise value of $170 million. The transaction includes the transfer of environmental liabilities of $35 million and other liabilities of $8m, with…
New smelting furnace enables the use of lower-grade ore in DRI ironmaking
In late October, Metso Outotec Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.mogroup.com) introduced the DRI (direct reduced iron) Smelting Furnace to substitute blast furnaces used in iron- and steelmaking. The furnace was developed to tolerate high-slag volumes, which are problematic for a conventional…
Using ‘coke’ to reduce CO2 emissions from steelmaking
Liberty Steel UK (LSUK; London; www.libertysteelgroup.com) has completed trials of ecoke — a sustainable new raw material that can replace anthracite, the main source of charge carbon used in the electric-arc furnace (EAF) of steelmaking, and reduce steel’s carbon footprint…
Chem Chronicles: Discovery and Re-discovery of Mechanochemistry
A reclusive expert of 19th-century photography laid the foundation for mechanochemistry, a once-ignored field that is re-emerging in ‘green chemistry’ applications For decades in the late 1800s, Carey Lea had been fascinated by the chemistry of photography, and had studied…
Scaling Up Hydrogenation Processes for Biomass Conversion
When scaling up new processes involving complex feedstocks, such as biomass, well-defined mixing is key. Guidelines presented here will help to efficiently move biomass hydrogenation reactions from the laboratory to commercial-scale operations One of the most promising pathways to biomass-based,…