Latest News: Business
Solvay opens new ETFBO facility in Germany
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has opened a new facility in Bad Wimpfen, Germany to produce the synthetic building block 4-ethoxy-1,1,1-trifluoro-3-butene-2-one (ETFBO), expanding its range of fluorinated organic intermediates. ETFBO is a building block that boosts the efficiency of active…
CB&I awarded contract for hydrogen plant at Kansas refinery
CB&I (The Woodlands, Rex.; www.cbi.com) has announced that it has been awarded a contract valued in excess of $40 million by Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing LLC. The project scope includes the engineering, procurement, fabrication and field construction of a…
Chemical equity prices slip in October, ACC says
The S&P Index for chemical companies fell in October, by 2.6%, while the wider S&P 500 index rose by 2.3%, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). From the…
Momentive Specialty Chemicals to construct two formaldehyde plants in Louisiana
Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc. (Columbus, Ohio; www.momentive.com) has announced the latest expansion of its Forest Products business through the construction of two new formaldehyde plants in Lousiana, in Geismar and Luling, respectively. The company plans to invest approximately $66…
Toyo receives contract for first-ever commercial application of high-efficiency distillation system
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a contract to commercialize an energy-saving distillation system, called SuperHIDiC, which was patented in 2011. The contract is for a distillation column in a methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) production plant to…
MHPS receives order for DeNOx system for power plant in Spain
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS; Yokohama Japan; www.mpshq.com), received an order from Hidroelectrica del Cantabrico, S.A., the Spanish power producer of EDP (Energia de Portugal) group, for two sets of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) type DeNOx systems for installation at…
KBR awarded FEED services contract butadiene expansion project in Saudi Arabia
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) for the debottlenecking and expansion of its Petrokemya Butadiene Extraction Plant in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Arabian Petrochemical Co. (Petrokemya), a…
Solazyme and Versalis to collaborate on commercialization of biodegradable lubricant
Solazyme, Inc. (South San Francisco, Calif.; www.solazyme.com) and Versalis, the chemical subsidiary of Eni s.p.A. (Milan, Italy; www.eni.com) have announced a partnership to expand the commercial use of Encapso, what is said to be the world’s first commercially-available, biodegradable encapsulated…
Momentive commissions expansions for silicone rubber and coatings in Thailand
Momentive Performance Materials Inc. (Waterford, N.Y.; www.momentive.com) has commissioned two new expansions at its Rayong, Thailand manufacturing facility to serve the growing Asian market demand for specialty chemicals. Commissioning took place as part of part of the 10th anniversary celebration…
KBR signs acetic-acid-technology alliance with Chiyoda
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has signed an agreement with Chiyoda Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.chiyoda-corp.com/en), a leading engineering and construction firm in Japan, to license its CT-Acetica technology. Chiyoda developed the CT-Acetica process, a methanol-carbonylation process that uses methanol and carbon…