The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has secured a long-term contract with Ningbo Wanhua Polyurethane, which is one of the fastest growing chemical companies for the production of polyurethanes in China. Linde will supply oxygen and nitrogen to Wanhua’s world-scale…
Kureha Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.kureha.co.jp/en ) says it will invest more than $100 million to build a plant in Belle, W.Va., which will produce and sell the high-performance polymer, polyglycolic acid (PGA). Construction of the production facility, which will be…
BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and OAO Gazprom (Moscow, Russia) today officially launched production operations at the Russian natural gas field Yuzhno Russkoye. This is the first time that a German company has been directly involved in the production of…
Oxea GmbH, (Oberhausen, Germany; www.oxea-chemicals.com) one of the world’s leading manufacturers of oxo products and derivatives, today announced the introduction of improved manufacturing processes resulting in higher product yields. At the same time, the company is increasing its production capacity…
Two European refining majors – Slovnaft in Slovakia and OVM/Petrom in Romania - have signed contracts with Haldor Topsøe (Lyngby, Demnark; www.topsoe.com) for hydrocracking technology. Topsøe has licensed its hydrocracking technology to Slovnaft for revamp of the full conversion 20,000…
The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S; Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com/cement) has received an order from Orascom Construction Industries (OCI; Cairo, Egypt), to engineer and supply all the electrical equipment for the new cement works of the Al Safwa Cement…
At the Chem Show last month (New York; Oct. 30 – Nov. 1), Resodyn Acoustic Mixers Inc. (Butte, Mont.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6902-531) demonstrated its new, impeller-free mixing technology, which induces microscale turbulence through the propagation of acoustic waves. Dubbed ResonantAcoustic Mixing (RAM),…
A pressure-swing-adsorption (PSA) system for hydrogen purification that operates at "tens of cycles per minute," versus one cycle every 4 – 10 min for conventional PSA, will have its first commercial-scale demonstration at an ExxonMobil refinery in France. Developed by…
Ethanol production is an energy-intensive process in which about 50% of the cost is for distillation and dehydration of the ethanol. A membrane system that does the same job, but reduces the energy consumption by up to 50%, has been…
Japan Oil, Gas, & Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC; Kawasaki; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6902-534) and six private companies have established a research consortium to build a confirmation test-plant for a new Japanese gas-to-liquids (JGTL) process. Construction on the 500-bbl/d facility, located at Niigata, Japan,…