Haiwan Chemical Co. has awarded KBR with a technology contract in order to construct a new 320,000 tonnes per annum phenol and acetone plant in China. Under the contract, KBR will provide technology license and basic engineering design as well as technical and training services to Haiwan Chemical.

BASF and Petronas announced that the Heads of Agreement (HoA) between the two parties for a joint speciality chemicals venture within Petronas’ Refinery & Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project in Pengerang, Johor/Malaysia, has been terminated by mutual agreement.

Specialty chemicals company Lanxess has increased its dichlorobenzene capacity by more than 15 %. It has done so by installing an additional crystallizer at the Leverkusen site, thereby enabling it to produce more high-purity paradichlorobenzene for the global market. Some € 3 million has been invested in the capacity expansion for this intermediate for the manufacture of high-performance plastics.

Fluor has signed an agreement for use of the test facility Technology Center Mongstad (TCM) in Nordhordland. This project is to strengthen the energy technology cooperation between Norway and USA, TCMs business development manager, Bjørn-Erik Haugan says.

Bürkert has developed a new Ex-product range for solenoid valves. The new concept stands out due to its modularity and simplicity and offers the right solution for your application.

Process analysis technology permeates every aspect of pharmaceutical production — Improved process understanding, higher process reliability, and fewer rejects: PAT techniques can achieve all this and more.

Capable of producing 1.5 million tonnes of ethylene per year, the complex will include the first mixed-feed cracker in the Gulf region to be integrated with a refinery.

The licensed technologies include polypropylene, high-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene for the five new plants. With a capacity of almost 2 million tonnes, this is the largest volume of new capacity ever licensed by Lyondell Basell.

Despite increasing volaties, the market for agricultural inputs could grow to € 100 million, Bayer's Crop Science division believes. These figures are especially encouraging as the parent company just decided to focus solely on agrochemicals and healthcare products and divest the remains of its materials and polymers business..

In many cases of vacuum distillation applications, where the desired vacuum level is not achieved because of system inefficiency, it ultimately affects the product quality. Installation of booster pumps, which is comparatively a cheap proposition, often helps in improving the vacuum level under such circumstances.