SKC (Seoul, Korea; www.skc.kr/skhp/en/index.jsp), the leading propylene oxide (PO) and polyester film producer in Korea, announced today that its new PO plant in Ulsan successfully started the world’s first commercial production of PO based on the hydrogen-peroxide propylene-oxide (HPPO) process.…
Specialty chemicals supplier Cognis (Monheim, Germany; www.cognis.com) today announced the sale of its 50-% stake in the Cognis Oleochemicals joint venture (JV) to PTT Chemical International Private Ltd. (PTT Chemical International), a Singapore based wholly owned subsidiary of PTT Chemical…
The Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co. (Takreer, United Arab Emirates; www.takreer.com) has awarded the Shaw Group Inc. (Baton Rouge, La.; www.shawgrp.com) a process license technology package that will include four Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) technologies along with the world’s largest…
Petrom S.A. of Romania has commissioned Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.biz) to build a gasoline desulphurization plant at its refinery located in Brazi, some 50km north of Bucharest. This clean-fuels plant is scheduled to come on-stream in early 2009 with…
Industrial designer Tore Christian Bjørsvik at Sintef Health Research (Trondheim, Norway; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-545) has developed a safety helmet with a soft, flexible inner layer that instantly becomes a hard shock absorber if the helmet is subjected to impact. The helmet also…
The Dow Performance Fluids, a business of Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-546) has introduced a new high-temperature cleaning solvent for cleaning polymer-process reactor vessels, pipelines, heat exchangers, pumps and other equipment impaired by polymer residue. Dow HT-Solve 515 —…
Ethanol could be produced for less than $1/gal through a new process developed by ZeaChem, Inc. (Lakewood, Colo.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-531). The company has piloted the process (flowsheet) and plans to start up a 1.5-million-gal/yr full-scale demonstration plant at the end of…
Last month, a Dutch consortium composed of Akzo Nobel (Amsterdam, Netherlands; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7473-549), energy firm Essent, algae producers Ingrepo and Wageningen University, received a 1-million grant to investigate the potential of converting algae into feedstock for the CPI. The four-year study…
Much as the chemical process industries (CPI) themselves are always evolving, so too are the engineering materials that play a role behind the scenes. While they may not always make headlines as groundbreaking scientific technologies tend to do, new…
Single crystals of high-purity, anatase titanium dioxide with a high percentage of reactive (001) facets are said to have promising applications in solar cells, photonic and optoelectronic devices, sensors and photocatalysis. However, it is the (101) crystal facets of anatase…