Ashland Inc. (Columbus, Ohio; www.ashland.com) recently completed a capacity expansion for hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), marketed under the brand Natrosol, in Nanjing, China. This expansion increased the manufacturing capacity of the site by nearly 30%. Key markets for HEC include coatings, personal…
Total Corbion PLA, a 50/50 joint venture between Total S.A. (Paris, France; www.total.com) and Corbion (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.corbion.com), announced the startup of its 75,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) PLA (Poly-Lactic Acid) bioplastics plant in Rayong, Thailand. The plant…
Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn.; www.hexcel.com) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ARC Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of custom RF / EMI and microwave-absorbing composite materials for military, aerospace and industrial applications. The acquisition strengthens Hexcel’s existing advanced…
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) announced that it will relocate its global corporate headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina, a city close to several of Honeywell's businesses in the Southeast United States. Honeywell also announced it will relocate the headquarters of its Safety and…
Kemira Oyj (Helsinki, Finland; www.kemira.com) has formed a joint venture with a producer of alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) wax in China. With this agreement, Kemira forms a joint venture – Kemira TC Wanfeng Chemicals Yanzhou (NewCo) – with Shandong Tiancheng…
DuPont Water Solutions (www.dupont.com/water), a part of the DuPont Safety & Construction business, opened its new reverse osmosis (RO) production line in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Located in Jubail Industrial City II, the facility will manufacture membrane technology and…
Aker Solutions (Fornebu, Norway; www.akersolutions.com) and Siemens AG (Munich and Berlin, Germany; www.siemens.com) have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to further develop digital offerings in engineering, operations and services. The collaboration focuses on the creation of software applications and joint…
Hanwha Total Petrochemical (www.hanwha-total.com), a 50/50 joint venture between Total S.A. (Paris, France; www.total.com) and Hanwha Group (Seoul, South Korea; www.hanwha.com), will invest nearly $500 million to further expand its Daesan integrated refining and petrochemical complex in South Korea. The…
The pitfalls in cost estimating that cause project overruns have been well known for decades, yet they continue to plague the CPI When I first started writing this article, I set out to summarize the mechanics of project cost estimation.…
This methodology can be used not only for laminar flow, but also for the complete turbulent flow region In recent decades, the impact of energy costs on the transport of fluids has led to a significant reduction in fluid velocity…