Latest News: Business
U.S. economic expansion being tempered by uncertainty in energy markets, CAB shows
The July Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) posted a 0.4% increase over June, as measured on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. The pace of growth was…
Tesoro announces plans for U.S. xylene production
Tesoro Corp. (San Antonio, Tex.; www.tsocorp.com) has announced plans to produce petrochemical feedstock in its U.S. West Coast refining system. The company intends to gather intermediate feedstock, primarily reformate, from its West Coast refining system for xylene extraction at Anacortes,…
ZeoGas enters license agreement with ExxonMobil for methanol-to-gasoline technology
ZeoGas LLC (Houston; www.zeogas.com), a developer of natural gas-to-gasoline projects, has entered into a license agreement to use ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company’s (ExxonMobil) methanol-to-gasoline technology in the development of a natural gas-to-gasoline plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast. ZeoGas…
Evonik invests in new silica plant in Brazil
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, German; www.evonik.com) plans to build a plant to produce precipitated silicas in Americana (São Paulo, Brazil). The company is investing a mid-double-digit-million euro amount; the plant is scheduled to go on stream in 2016. This will…
Evonik and AkzoNobel look into production JV for membrane electrolysis in Ibbenbüren
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) and AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) have entered into negotiations to build a membrane electrolysis facility at AkzoNobel’s site in Ibbenbüren, Germany. The objective of the negotiations is to establish a joint venture (JV)…
Maire Tecnimont books EPC contract for large-scale fertilizer complex in Indiana
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. (Milan, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.com) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Fatima Group Principals (FGP) and Midwest Fertilizer Corporation (MFC), which will form the basis for negotiating and finalizing agreements towards a strategic collaboration for work on a…
Goodfellow and Haydale sign major distribution agreement for graphene materials
Goodfellow (Coraopolis, Pa.; www.goodfellowusa.com), a global supplier of high-purity metals and materials for research and industry, has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with U.K.-based Haydale Graphene Industries plc (www.haydale.com) to market and distribute Haydale’s functionalized graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). The Haydale…
GEA Wiegand: New orders from the gelatine industry
GEA Wiegand GmbH and GEA Filtration (Ettlingen, Germany; www.gea-wiegand.com) have received an order for a revamp of an old evaporator and for a new direct-steam sterilization unit of a German gelatin manufacturer. After the commissioning phase of the evaporation plant,…
Topsøe opens new sulfuric-acid-catalyst production plant in Texas
Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com) recently opened a new plant at its production site in Bayport, Texas, which is currently the company’s second largest in the world. The new plant is devoted to producing Topsøe’s VK portfolio of extruded…
Praxair to construct air-separation unit for Sinopec-Hunstman JV in Nanjing
Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com), through a subsidiary, has signed a longterm contract to supply industrial gases to Nanjing Jinling Huntsman New Materials Co., Ltd., a joint venture (JV) between Sinopec Jinling and Huntsman Corp. (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.huntsman.com). Jinling…