Chemical Engineering
Borouge and Yokogawa collaborate on AI-powered autonomous control room
Borouge Plc is collaborating with Yokogawa Electric Corporation to conduct a proof-of-concept for AI-powered autonomous control room operations at Borouge’s world-class Ruwais facility in Abu Dhabi. Yokogawa UAE Industry, a leading provider of advanced automation technologies and solutions across the Emirates…
Westlake to acquire ACI compounding businesses
Westlake Corp. (Houston) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the global compounding solutions businesses of the ACI/Perplastic Group (collectively, ACI). ACI is a Portugal-based global manufacturer of specialty materials serving the wire and cable sectors, which…
Covestro completes acquisition of Pontacol
Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) has successfully completed the acquisition of Pontacol, a Swiss manufacturer of multilayer adhesive films, effective August 28, 2025. The company had already announced the agreement in June 2025. With this acquisition, Covestro is expanding its films…
Arkema starts up new fluorospecialties production site in Kentucky
Arkema S.A. (Colombes, France) announced the successful start-up of its 15,000-ton/year Forane 1233zd production unit in Calvert City, Kentucky, part of the company's continued development of its low Global Warming Potential (GWP) fluorospecialties, to meet the increasing demand for more…
Evonik inaugurates world-scale alkoxides plant in Singapore
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany) has inaugurated its new world-scale alkoxides production facility on Jurong Island, Singapore—marking a major milestone in its global catalyst strategy. First announced in May 2023, the mid-double-digit-million-euro investment strengthens Evonik’s ability to meet rising demand…
DuPont sells Aramids business for $1.8 billion
DuPont (Wilmington, Del.) announced that Arclin, a portfolio company of an affiliate of TJC, L.P. (TJC), has reached a definitive agreement to acquire DuPont’s Aramids business (Kevlar and Nomex) in a transaction valuing the business at approximately $1.8 billion. Arclin…
This process can fully mineralize PFAS with no toxic byproducts
Breaking the stable carbon-fluorine bonds within per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is one of the most significant challenges in mitigating persistent PFAS pollution. The Hydrothermal Alkaline Technology (HALT; diagram), invented at the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colo.; www.mines.edu) and…
New reactor supports organic-assisted electrolysis for green hydrogen
The production of “green” hydrogen via electrolysis is seen as a key decarbonization pathway for certain industry sectors, but its efficiency can be hampered by a number of factors, including the accumulation of gas bubbles on electrode surfaces within electrolyzers…
Switchable solvent supports freshwater extraction from hypersaline brine
Extremely high-salinity water streams present difficulties for many types of processing equipment, such as membranes and filters, and most commercial treatment methods involve thermal evaporators or crystallization, which are energy-intensive and require special anti-corrosion materials. A new membrane-less, non-evaporative process…
Carbon dioxide removal combined with desalination
Most existing carbon-dioxide removal (CDR) approaches have focused on air, but the volumetric concentration of dissolved inorganic CO2 in surface water is much higher (150X) than its concentration in the atmosphere. Removing CO2 from water could prove to be a…