Latest News: Business
CAB sees seventh consecutive monthly gain
The American Chemistry Council's (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) monthly Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB) released today continued to show a slowly expanding U.S. economy, increasing 0.6% over January on a three-month-moving-average (3MMA) basis. The year-over-year 3MMA showed a 2.9% gain over…
UOP introduces new membrane element to improve natural-gas-processing capacity
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, today announced a new, advanced membrane element designed to increase natural gas processing capacity, compared with existing technology, allowing producers to capture higher revenue and reduce costs. The Separex Flux+ is a drop-in…
ABB commissions first line of Northland’s Kaunisvaara iron ore mine
ABB (Baden, Switzerland; www.abb.com) recently completed commissioning of the integrated electrification and automation system for the first process line of Northland Resources’ Kaunisvaara iron-ore concentrator plant. The site is located approximately 100 km north of the Arctic Circle, in Sweden.…
Grupo Idesa and CyPlus enter JV to build NaCN plant in Mexico
Grupo Idesa S.A de C.V. (Mexico) and CyPlus GmbH (Germany), a 100% subsidiary of Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) are close to signing a joint venture (JV) agreement for the construction of a sodium cyanide plant in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico.…
Global and U.S. chemical production rose in January, ACC report says
The Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) rose 0.3% in January of this year, following a similar gain in December 2012, according to the most recent Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.;…
UOP technology selected to modernize refinery in Kazakhstan
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, announced today that its technology has been selected by the largest petroleum refiner in Kazakhstan to help it upgrade its facility and boost the production of gasoline and diesel. KazMunaiGas’ (KMG)…
New Biturox project awarded to Pörner by Indian Oil
In January 2013, Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, (Vienna, Austria; www.poerner.at) concluded a contract for engineering and construction of a Biturox Bitumen Plant in Barauni Refinery, near Patna in the east of India with Indian Oil Corp. The Pörner scope of services…
Dow and Davy license LP Oxo Technology to Sinopec
Davy Process Technology Ltd. (DPT; London, U.K.; www.davyprotech.com), a Johnson Matthey company, and The Dow Chemical Company (Dow; Midlands, Mich.; www.dow.com) announced that China Petrochemical International Co., a subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China’s largest petrochemical company,…
Air Products to supply four ASUs to Lu’An Mining
Air Products’ (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) pursuit and success in developing large air separation unit (ASU) projects in China has been bolstered with the winning of the second-largest ASU onsite order ever awarded to the company for a single project.…
Metrohm and FOSS form alliance
Metrohm AG (Herisau, Switzerland; www.metrohm.com) and FOSS NIRSystems Inc. (Laurel, Md.; www.foss-nirsystems.com) have entered into a strategic alliance in which Metrohm will become the sole global distributor of FOSS NIR instruments for the chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and environmental sectors. “Metrohm…