Aspen Technology, Inc. (Bedford, Mass.; www.aspentech.com) has acquired Apex Optimisation, a European company specializing in Dynamic Optimization and Advanced Process Control. Apex’s GDOT software aligns Advanced Process Control (APC) with Planning & Scheduling, enabling unified production optimization for refineries and…
PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP; Jakarta, Indonesia; www.chandra-asri.com) commenced the groundbreaking for a new polyethylene (PE) plant, which is planned to have capacity to produce 400,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr). The groundbreaking ceremony took place at CAP’s integrated…
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) announced it has been awarded a contract by IGP Methanol LLC. The scope of work includes front-end engineering design (FEED) services to produce a binding lump-sum price for the Gulf Coast Methanol complex to be…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will grow its global Alkyl Polyglucosides (APG) production capacity with two production expansion projects at sites in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jinshan, China. With Cincinnati coming online in 2018 and Jinshan in 2019, BASF aims to…
Mexichem S.A.B. de C.V. (Tlalnepantla, Mexico; www.mexichem.com) announced that it will appoint Daniel Martínez-Valle to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), following the resignation of Antonio Carrillo, who has informed us that he is leaving to pursue other professional…
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) recently started the world’s largest oxygen production unit for Sasol (Johannesburg, South Africa, www.sasol.com). Air Liquide invested around €200 million for the construction of this Air Separation Unit (ASU) in Secunda, with a total production capacity of 5,000 metric…
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. (Milan, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.com) announced that its main subsidiaries Tecnimont S.p.A. and KT-Kinetics Technology S.p.A. have signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) as part of the execution…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will start the construction of a new methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) synthesis unit at the company’s Verbund site in Geismar, Louisiana, in early Q2 2018. Planning and engineering for the new unit started in 2016…
When it comes to managing complex global supply chains, visibility and collaboration are the name of the game. To drive it, companies are embracing digital strategies The global chemical process industries (CPI) are undergoing a major transformation brought about by…
This column is based on “Cyclohexane from Benzene and Hydrogen – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/cyclohexane-production-cost. Cyclohexane is a relatively stable cycloalkane, present in crude oils in concentrations of 0.1–1.0%. This cycloparaffin…