What is said to be the world’s first commercial alkylation plant to use a solid acid catalyst is scheduled for startup early next year by Shandong Wonfull Petrochemical Group Co. (Zibo, China). The plant, which will produce 100,000 ton/yr of…
The temperature and moisture level of the air being drawn into the front end of ammonia, nitrogen, nitric acid or other plant air compressors directly impacts the yield from the process, and chilling is a way to debottleneck air production…
A demonstration plant in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, will produce hydrochloric acid and iron pellets from the iron-chloride leach liquor generated by the production of synthetic rutile, the common mineral form of titanium dioxide. The plant will utilize a…
Nippon Paper Industries Co. (Nippon Paper; Tokyo; www.nipponpapergroup.com) is constructing a verification plant for the production of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) at the Chemical Div. of its Iwakuni Mill. Scheduled to start up in October, the facility will have a production…
Tantalum and niobium, which are often found in complex ores, are essentially chemically inert metals whose recovery involves some harsh measures: typically dissolution of the metals concentrate in a mixture of concentrated hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids, followed by solvent extraction…
An improved H2SO4 process developed by CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has now been licensed to three companies, all in China. The first licensee was Ningbo Haiyue New Material Co. Ltd., which is building a 600,000-m.t./yr plant near Ningbo City,…
China’s largest private chemical EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor, Wison Engineering Ltd. (Wison; Shanghai; www.wison.com) has recently introduced details about its proprietary butadiene technology, which is set for commercialization. The process aims to meet the anticipated growth in annual butadiene…
Oji Holdings Corp. (OJI; www.ojiholdings.co.jp) and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; both Tokyo, Japan; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) have developed a continuous process for producing transparent sheets made from ultra-thin, wood-based cellulose nanofibers (CNF). Both OJI’s papermaking technology and MCC’s chemical treatment technology contributed…
A team of researchers from Novasep (Pompey, France; www.novasep.com) has discovered and characterized the explosive properties of the so-called Togni reagent II and intermediates at the Novasep Leverkusen site in Germany. Invented by professor Antonio Togni at the Laboratory of…
Last month, Krohne Messtechnik GmbH (Duisburg, Germany; www.krohne.com) launched SmartSens, the first family of two-wire, loop-powered analytical sensors with integrated transmitter technology. Prior to this, analytical sensors have required an external proprietary transmitter onsite to deliver the sensor signals to…