The cause of the UK’s high-profile Buncefield oil storage depot explosion in 2005? Overflow during remote filling of a storage tank. Disasters like this led to process industries adopting strict safety and environmental regulations, which you are likely quite familiar with. But some problems in the life of a plant manager aren’t always severe enough to reach international news headlines. However, even overfilling a tank with a fairly benign material can cause major headaches for a company.

Siluria Technologies, a pioneer in the commercial production of fuels and chemicals made from clean and abundant natural gas, and The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company, announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement.

Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures has invested in US-based Seeq Corporation which specialises in IIOT advanced analytics software. The software is capable of boosting production in process manufacturing industries such as oil and gas, pharma, chemicals, and so on.

Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (Nedo) has selected a consortium for developing the world’s most advanced technology for industrial para-xylene production from CO2. The Group has been selected as contractors for this project.

Wacker Chemie is expanding its production capacity for dispersible polymer powders in Germany. The Munich-based chemical company is currently building a new spray dryer with an annual capacity of 50,000 metric tons at its Burghausen site, investing an amount of around € 20 million. The facility is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2015 and will be one of the largest of its kind worldwide.

Ceresana has introduced a new report on the global market for linear low-density polyethylene. The report reveals that the Asia-Pacific region is the largest consumer of LLDPE across the globe.

Post the capacity expansion, Advanced Biochemical (Thailand) Co. is expected to produce 120,000 mt/year of bio-based epichlorohydrin at its Map Ta Phut facility in Thailand. The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand approved this expansion.

BASF and Domo Chemicals have successfully completed the acquisition of Solvay’s Performance Polyamides business. Under the agreement, Domo Chemicals has acquired Solvay's performance polyamides production sites in France while BASF has acquired all the Performance Polyamides activities of Solvay except those acquired by Domo Chemicals.

German chemical giant BASF announced the construction of a new plant for polyalkylene glycol (PAG)-based lubricants at its Ludwigshafen site. The manufacturing facility will start operations by the beginning of 2016 and produce PAG lubricant base stocks and formulated blends.

The new ‘In Focus Online Platform’ currently offers an online lube optimisation model which optimises product mix, maximises operational value and evaluates feed flexibility. It also comprises of a unit monitoring tool which identifies and analyzes potential operational concerns.