Eighty years ago, in 1944, Dr. Hans Müller from Winterthur, Switzerland filed a patent application for a device designed to process liquid substances at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property in Bern. Liquids prone to fouling on heated surfaces,…
Sustainable SMR In the pursuit of lowering greenhouse gas emissions, hydrogen has gained much attention as a potentially “clean” energy source. Typically, hydrogen is produced by steam methane reforming (SMR), a process which itself produces greenhouse gases. Efforts to lower…
Plant Watch Evonik breaks ground on specialty-amine production plant in Nanjing November 11, 2024 — Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has broken ground on its plant expansion for specialty amines in Nanjing, China. The Nanjing plant specializes in producing…
A couple of years ago on Chemical Engineering’s 120th anniversary, I looked back at the history of this publication and at that time, I wrote: “In September of 1902, the first issue of Electrochemical Industry was published to serve those…
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) recently announced a renewable hydrogen production project at TotalEnergies (Courbevoie, France; www.totalenergies.com) La Mède (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in France) site. In the context of a long-term contract, Air Liquide will cover the hydrogen needs of…
Cyclyx International, LLC (Portsmouth, N.H.; www.10to90.com), a post-use plastic-to-feedstock innovator and joint venture among Agilyx (Oslo, Norway; www.agilyx.com), ExxonMobil (Spring, Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com), and LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com), has reached a final investment decision for a second Cyclyx Circularity Center…
INNIO Group (Jenbach, Austria; www.innio.com) today announced that it was awarded the COGEN Europe Recognition Award 2024 in the Technology and Innovation category for its 1 MW-class hydrogen combined heat and power (CHP) plant. Powered by green hydrogen, INNIO Group…
NextChem (Maire; Milan, Italy; www.nextchem.com) unveiled today its new high-tech engineering center, the “NX Engineering District”, in Catania, Sicily, in a ceremony attended by the local political and institutional leaders. The NX Engineering District, in Sicily’s Science and Technology Park,…
Clariant AG (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com), a sustainability-focused specialty chemical company, today announced that its MegaMax catalyst was selected for a China’s biomass gasification-to-green methanol project. The plant will use a combination of farm waste and wind power to produce up…
The preliminary value for the CE Plant Cost Index® (CEPCI) for September 2024 (most recent available) decreased slightly compared to the previous month’s value. The decline — the third consecutive monthly decrease — was driven mostly by a fall in…