Astech Projects (Runcorn, U.K.; www.astechprojects.co.uk) has announced the success of its new automation maintenance service, known as Reacts (Rapid, Effective And Complete Technical Support). This new service is quickly going from strength to strength and as such, Astech is pleased…
Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) has signed a contract with ZAO East Siberian Gas Processing Company covering license and basic engineering design for a natural gas based processing plant: The plant has a production capacity of 450,000 metric tons…
Foster Wheeler Ltd. (Hamilton, Bermuda; www.fwc.com) announced that its South African subsidiary, Foster Wheeler South Africa (Pty) Ltd., part of its Global Engineering and Construction Group, has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Senmin International (Pty)…
Royal DSM N.V. (Heerlen, Netherlands; www.dsm.com) today announces that the second polymerization plant for Stanyl polyamide 46 on the Chemelot site in Geleen, Netherlands, has opened. The new plant doubles DSM’s worldwide production capacity for this high-performance plastic, supporting expected…
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is to expand its site in Antwerp with capital expenditures amounting to some 35-million euros. The plan is to raise the capacity of the caprolactam production plant in the port of Antwerp by 10% by…
Today, Repsol's (Madrid, Spain; www.repsolypf.com) CEO, Antonio Brufau, Portugal’s Prime Minister, and Minister of Economy José Socrates and Manuel Pinho, have announced the initiation of the Sines Petrochemical Complex expansion project. This important project is one of company's main worldwide…
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has won an order from Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) for the design and delivery of an iron-ore sinter plant for SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant in Orissa. Outotec will implement the turnkey plant project…
Verenium Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.verenium.com) and BP p.l.c. (London; www.bp.com) have formed a partnership to accelerate the development and commercialization of Verenium’s technology for producing ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks such as sugarcane bagasse, switchgrass, rice straw and wood chips. In…
Metabolix, Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; www.metabolix.com) has demonstrated, in recently completed greenhouse trials, that switchgrass plants engineered using the firm’s multi-gene expression technology produced significant amounts polyhydroxybutyrate (a polyhydroxyalkanoate; PHA) bioplastics in leaf tissues. The result is said to be the…
BHR Biofuels, a subsidiary of BHR Group (Cranfield, U.K., www.bhrgroup.co.uk), has installed and demonstrated two process-intensified, full-size Biodiesel Reactor Systems at a chemical plant producing biodiesel from waste and virgin oils. The reactor systems are said to consume some 70%…