Plant Watch Construction of AkzoNobel’s unit for ethylene amines in China progresses December 17, 2008 — AkzoNobel Functional Chemicals (Amersfoort, The Netherlands) is installing production capacity for ethylene amines in Ningbo, China, including ethylene oxide and monoethanolamine (MEA). Startup of…
Researchers at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s (DOE; Washington, D.C.) Ames Laboratory (www.ameslab.gov) and Iowa State University (both of Ames, Iowa) have developed a hard, smooth coating that can be applied to industrial equipment, such as pumps, gears and cutting…
Bioethanol Last month, an energy-saving plant for producing bioethanol started up in Norrköping, Sweden, for Lantmännen Agroetanol AB. When operating at full capacity, the plant will produce 470,000 L/d of bioethanol from grain (mostly wheat), making it the largest bioethanol…
Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com/energy) has installed a turnkey photovoltaic (PV) plant on the roof of the Siemens Healthcare X-ray systems manufacturing plant in Forchheim, Germany. After a planning and construction time of less than three months, the unit went…
OM Group, Inc. (OMG; Cleveland, Ohio; www.omgi.com) and Rahu Catalytics Ltd. (Nottingham, U.K.; www.rahucat.com) have agreed to develop a long-term global license and supply agreement for novel technology in the field of additives for coatings, inks and composites. According to…
Bayer MaterialScience (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; www.bayermaterialscience.com) has received regulatory approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.) for Baytubes, BMS’ multi-wall carbon nanotubes (CE, December 2005, p. 16). This enables the company to sell Baytubes on the American…
Foster Wheeler Ltd. (Hamilton, Bermuda; www.fwc.com) announced today that its subsidiary Foster Wheeler International Corp. (Thailand branch), part of its Global Engineering and Construction Group, has been awarded contracts by MTP HPPO Manufacturing Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Siam Styrene…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) is increasing its production of low molecular weight, highly reactive polyisobutene (HR PIB). Between now and 2010 the company will increase its annual capacity by 25,000 metric tons (m.t.). The polymer, marketed worldwide under the…
Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.biz) has been awarded a contract by Risun Chemical Co. of China to build an aromatics plant at Tangshan (Hebei Province), some 150 km east of Beijing. The new plant will produce top-quality benzene, toluene and…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com), has started building a catalyst manufacturing plant, for producing precious-metal powder catalysts, in Shanghai, China. The plant will start operation in the fourth quarter of 2009. Precious-metal powder catalysts are used in the synthesis…