Latest News: Business
USDA awards $136 million in biofuels- and bioenergy-related R&D grants
The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA; Washington, D.C.; www.usda.gov) today announced five major grants that focus on developing biomass-derived fuels, in part for aviation. The research and development awards, which total $136 million over five years, are part of the…
Dow and K2 Pure start chlor-alkali facility at California site
The Dow Chemical Co. ((Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and K2 Pure Solutions (K2 Pure; Pittsburgh, Calif.; www.k2pure.com) today celebrated the successful start-up of a new chlor-alkali plant at Dow’s Pittsburg, Calif. site. The new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will produce bleach to…
BASF to sell fertilizer activities to EuroChem
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has signed a contract with EuroChem (Moscow, Russia; www.eurochem.ru), to sell its fertilizer activities in Antwerp, Belgium. BASF also plans to sell its 50% share of the joint-venture (JV) PEC-Rhin (Ottmarsheim, France) to EuroChem. The…
Outotec to deliver ferrochrome plant in China
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has agreed with Mintal Group Co., a large manufacturer of ferrochrome and stainless steel, on the design and delivery of a new ferrochrome plant to Baotou, in the Inner Mongolia, China. The contract value is…
Lanxess to expand its operations in the Netherlands
Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.lanxess.com) is investing €12 million to convert 50% of its ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) synthetic-rubber production in Geleen, the Netherlands, to innovative Keltan ACE technology. During 2013, the German specialty chemicals company will implement the…
Envergent and Oilon successfully demonstrate biofuels in industrial burners
Envergent Technologies LLC (Des Plaines, Ill; www.envergenttech.com), a Honeywell company, announced today that liquid biofuel produced from biomass by Envergent’s Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) technology has been successfully demonstrated in industrial burners by Oilon Group (Lahti, Finland; http://netfi.oilon.com), a leading European…
Jacobs’ JV awarded contract from OCP
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) announced today that Jacobs Engineering SA (JESA), the company's joint venture (JV) with OCP S.A. (OCP; www.ocpgroup.ma), has been selected to provide engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for two new diammonium…
Axens awarded licences for the Saudi Aramco Jazan Refinery & Terminal Project
Axens' (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) technologies have been selected by Saudi Aramco (Dhahran, Saudi Arabi; www.saudiaramco.com) for its Jazan Refinery & Terminal Project. The refinery, scheduled to be commissioned in December 2016, will have a capacity of 400,000 barrels per stream…
Momentive to expand specialty quartz plant in Geesthacht
Yesterday, Momentive Performance Materials Inc.’s (Albany, N.Y.; www.momentive.com) Quartz & Ceramics business kicked off an expansion of its specialty quartz production facility in Geesthacht, Germany, with a ceremony attended by government and business leaders, company officials and plant associates. The…
PPG to increase global production capacity for precipitated silica
PPG Industries (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com) is increasing its global precipitated-silica production capacity by more than 18,000 ton/yr in response to growing global demand. The capacity expansion includes projects at PPG’s Lake Charles, La., and Delfzijl, Netherlands, manufacturing locations. Kevin Braun,…