Latest News: Business
BASF to build formic acid plant in Louisiana
BASF Corp. (Florham Park, N.J.; www.basf.us) today announced plans to build a state-of-the-art production plant for formic acid at its integrated facility in Geismar, La. Slated to start up in the second quarter of 2014, the new plant will…
Purchasing managers index up more than expected in April, ACC report says
Citing data from the Institute for Supply Management, the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) said that the purchasing managers index (PMI) increased by a greater-than-expected 1.4 points to 54.8 in April. In this type of index, values above…
KBR selected to construct shale-gas processing facility
KBR (Houston; www.kbr.com) was awarded a general works contract for the construction of a 200-million standard cubic feet per day, sweet natural-gas processing plant near Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada. KBR’s Canadian subsidiary, KBR Wabi, will execute all mechanical,…
Fluor wins copper mill optimization work in British Columbia
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) was awarded a contract from Teck (Vancouver, Canada; www.teck.com) to provide engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the Highland Valley Copper Mill Optimization project in British Columbia, Canada. Fluor booked $397 million…
Outotec acquires Demil Manutenção Industrial in Brazil
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has agreed to acquire all shares in Demil Manutenção Industrial Ltda. (Guarapari, Espírito Santo, Brazil) from Marcos Del Pupo and his children. Demil provides industrial maintenance services for iron-ore pelletizing plants and is located in.…
Solazyme and Dow to accelerate commercialization of bio-based dielectric insulating fluids
Solazyme, Inc. (South San Francisco, Calif.; www.solazyme.com) and The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) have entered into a contingent offtake agreement in which Dow has agreed to purchase from Solazyme all of its requirements of non-vegetable microbe-based oils for…
B&W to proceed with waste-to-energy plant in Florida
The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W; Charlotte, N.C.; www.babcock.com) says that its subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG) has received full notice to proceed (FNTP) for the engineering, design, procurement and construction of a waste-to-energy power…
Uhde supplies chlor-alkali electrolysis technology to AkzoNobel
At the Frankfurt-Höchst, (Germany) industrial estate, AkzoNobel is converting an amalgam electrolysis plant to the modern membrane process and has commissioned ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu) to design and supply the energy-saving Uhde membrane cells. This extensive conversion project…
Chevron Phillips Chemical selects site for new polyethylene facilities and executes FEED contracts for cracker and derivatives
Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cpchem.com) announced yesterday that the two polyethylene facilities planned as part of the company’s U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project, would be located on a site nearby the Chevron Phillips Chemical Sweeny…
UOP technology selected by Sinochem to produce high-purity hydrogen
UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, says that it has been selected by Sinochem to provide technology to purify hydrogen at a new petroleum refinery in China. Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co. — a fully owned subsidiary of…