Lanxess has started the production of high performance prepolymers at its site in Porto Feliz, Brazil. With this measure, the Urethane Systems business unit is expanding its production capacity for prepolymers.

Chiyoda Group with its JV partners Saipem and Mc Dermott International will be responsible for carrying out the project. Under the terms, Saipem will execute the project while Mirai Engineering Italy will offer specified technical support.

Biomass – more than just a fuel for power generation: It carries the hope to be usable for an ever–increasing number of chemical intermediates and finished products. Let's take a look at the challenges that the biomass conversion, bioplastics and renewable feedstock poses for plant engineering...

The Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project includes construction of a chemical facility and a 1.8 million metric tonne ethane steam cracker in Texas, USA. The project is anticipated to create an economic output of 22 billion dollar plus during construction and 50 billion dollars during the first six years.

Perstorp has plans to investigate the production of recycled methanol at its Swedish facility in Stenungsund. The study aims at producing a more sustainable, recycled methanol to replace fossil methanol as a raw material in the firm’s s production process.

The debottlenecking process has led to an increase in the capacity of Diethylhydroxylamine by 15 to 20 % at the St. Gabriel unit in Los Angeles. Deha is used primarily in water treatment and in the production of various polymers.

Petrofac has appointed Mohammed Ghazi Al-Mutairi in Kuwait owing to the numerous projects undertaken by the company in the Gulf country. The petite nation also holds strategic importance for the firm.

Wacker Chemie has officially launched its new production plant for vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions at its Ulsan site in South Korea. The additional 40,000 metric tons from the second reactor line increases the site’s VAE-dispersion capacity to a total of 90,000 tons per year.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB and the University of Stuttgart aim to use the climate-damaging greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as a raw material for the production of chemicals. To do this, they are developing a combined plasma and membrane process that splits CO2 into oxygen and the chemical base material carbon monoxide.

Fluor is responsible for undertaking engineering, procurement and construction work for expansion of Milliken’s chemical plant at the Allen Plant site in Blacksburg, South Carolina. Work on the project is already in progress.