Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) today announces that its sodium bicarbonate production capacity extension at its Rosignano site, Italy, successfully started production. With this expansion, Rosignano will become the world’s biggest sodium bicarbonate production plant with a yearly capacity of 250,000…
Outotec Oyj (Helsinki, Finland; www.outotec.com) and Hindustan Dorr-Oliver Ltd. (HDO; Mumbai, India; www.hdo.in) have signed a contract with Anrak Aluminium Ltd. to provide clarification and red-mud-washing technologies as well as services for Anrak’s alumina refinery in Andhra Pradesh, India. The combined…
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) today announced it will build and commission a state-of-the-art 2,550 metric ton per day (m.t./d) air separation unit (ASU) at Tata Steel Ltd’s plant in Jamshedpur, India. Tata Steel is one of the world’s…
Integrated Sensing Systems, Inc. (ISSYS; Ypsilanti, Mich.; www.mems-issys.com) announced that the U.S. Patent Office has granted it a utility patent (US 7,581,429) “Microfluidic Device and Method of Operation.” According to Dr. Doug Sparks, executive vice-president of ISSYS, this patent describes…
Al-Waha Petrochemical Co. (Dubai, UAE) has successfully started up its new complex in Al-Jubail Industrial City which includes a 450,000 ton/yr polypropylene (PP) plant based on LyondellBasell’s (www.lyondellbasell.com) Spherizone process technology. Al-Waha was formed in 2006 and is a joint…
Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) today announced it is expanding its vinyl acetate/ethylene (VAE) manufacturing facility at its Nanjing, China, integrated chemical complex. The investment will support continued growth plans for the Celanese Emulsion Polymers business throughout Asia, including China,…
Gazprom Komplektatsiya LLC (a Gazprom subsidiary) has launched an investment program to increase the octane number of the existing gasoline production and also the profitability of its refinery located in Astrakhan, Russia, on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The…
Hamon Research Cottrell (Somerville, N.J.) has entered into a formal agreement to market air-pollution-control technology from J-Power EnTech (Tokyo, Japan) in North America. The technology, Regenerative Activated Coke Technology (React), is designed for efficient control of SOx, NOx, mercury and…
The ChemPro Group, LLC (Boonton, N.J.; www.thechemprogroup.com) and Mo-Fuel (Rural Bio-waste; Sikeston, Missouri), have formed an alliance to commercialize a patented process that will economically and efficiently produce ethanol from cellulose feedstocks. According to Steve Lavorerio, president of ChemPro, the…
Wind, water and solar energy resources are sufficiently available to provide all the world's energy. Converting to electricity and hydrogen powered by these sources would reduce world power demand by 30%, thereby avoiding 13,000 coal power plants. Materials and costs…