Zachry Group (San Antonio, Tex.; www.zachrygroup.com) has been chosen by ExxonMobil to support its Beaumont, Texas, 650,000-metric tons per year (m.t./yr) polyethylene (PE) expansion, which begins this quarter. Zachry will provide constructability and execution planning, electrical and instrumentation design, and…
On October 26, the direct-reduction, hot-briquetted-iron (HBI) plant built by Primetals Technologies (London, U.K.; www.primetals.com) and consortium partner Midrex Technologies, Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.; www.midrex.com) was officially started-up in the presence of the voestalpine board after an effective construction phase of…
The September 2016 preliminary value for the CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) was slightly lower than the previous month’s value, continuing a modest decline that began in July. Decreases in the Equipment and Buildings subindices offset…
Total S.A. (Paris; www.total.com) and Corbion (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.corbion.com) are joining forces to develop bioplastics by creating a 50-50 joint venture to produce and market polylactic (PLA) polymers. The two partners plan to build a world-class PLA polymerization plant…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has started engineering for a stepwise capacity increase of its methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) production facilities at the company’s Verbund site in Geismar, Louisiana. Capacity will be increased incrementally from 300,000 metric tons per year…
To accommodate business growth and a consequent increase in production and supply chain needs, Novozymes (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) has obtained land on a longterm lease in the Patalganga industrial area near Mumbai on India’s west coast. With an initial investment…
GE Digital (www.ge.com/digital) announced it has acquired Bit Stew Systems (Burnaby, B.C., Canada; www.bitstew.com) to bring its data intelligence capabilities to Predix and other industrial solutions. Bit Stew applies its machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to automate the…
SABIC (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) will have a new pilot plant for development of next-generation polypropylenes on-stream in Sittard-Geleen, the Netherlands, by the end of March 2017. The plant, which will use gas-phase polymerization technology, will support the production at…
We've previously talked about some of the tools we've made available to help select the right vacuum pump for your work. Our pump selection guide is a great choice if you have a strong sense of your operating parameters. And for drying…
For its substantial polyethylene expansion project in Beaumont, Texas, Exxon Mobil Corp. (Spring, Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com) has awarded service contracts to Wood Group (Aberdeen, Scotland; www.woodgroup.com) and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Dallas, Tex.; www.jacobs.com) ExxonMobil Chemical awarded a $40-million contract to…