Employment of production workers in the U.S. chemical industry rose by 2,300 jobs (0.5%) to 503,000 in July, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that were discussed in the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) is right on schedule with its plans to expand amino-acid production for animal feed — one of its core businesses. A symbolic ground-breaking ceremony in Singapore today officially marked the start of construction of…
Enefit Oil & Gas (Tallinn, Estonia; www.energia.ee) began the first hot commissioning of its Enefit280 shale oil plant in Auvere, Estonia on July 27. The first shale oil from the new plant is expected in September. “The start-up for this…
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) and Orbite Aluminae have agreed to terms for a project related to the Canadian company's new plant to process high purity alumina. The scope of delivery for Outotec involves both basic and detail engineering as…
Cobalt Technologies (Cobalt; Mountain View, Calif.; www.cobalttech.com) and Rhodia, a member of the Solvay Group (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com), today announced they will begin joint development and operation of a biobutanol demonstration facility in Brazil. This is one more step by…
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill. www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, has been selected by Russia’s Lukoil to provide technology to produce blending components used to make high-octane gasoline and petrochemicals at its facility in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Lukoil will license an…
The Shaw Group Inc. (Baton Rouge, La.; www.shawgrp.com) has signed a definitive merger agreement with CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) under which CB&I will acquire Shaw in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $3 billion. Under the terms…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec; www.sinopec.com) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further strengthen their cooperation by jointly exploring the possibility of building a world-scale isononanol (INA) plant in Maoming Hi-tech…
Microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reactor technology developed by Velocys, Inc. (Plain City, Ohio; www.velocys.com),, the U.S.-based subsidiary of the Oxford Catalysts Group (Abingdon, U.K.; www.oxfordcatalysts.com), has been selected for use in a waste-to-liquids (WTL) commercial demonstration plant to be constructed in…
The Achema fair crew of Sommer Maschinen- & Anlagenbau (Düsseldorf, Germany), which now belongs to the HAVER Group (Oelde, Germany; www.haverboecker.com), says it received its first order on the first day of the Achema fair last month. Together with Fuchs…