The petrochemical industry is booming in North America, and Bilfinger North America wants its share of the growth. The service provider is currently doing good business with three large projects, and the orders already received for 2019 are promising another good year. The PROCESS editorial team was able to get a picture of these projects during a press trip.

No more ‘business as usual’: The CEO of one of the world’s leading oil companies says the upstream sector needs to transform itself to stay on top of the global energy industry. And the biggest challenge might be yet to come…

Oxea is studying the feasibility of a new world-scale production plant for the manufacturing of carboxylic acids. At the same time, the company announed measures to further improve and debottleneck its manufacturing processes at its existing carboxylic acid production units.

The dream of plastic from waste gas continues: The pan-European research project Carbon4PUR takes the next step in investigating how waste gas from the steel industry can be turned into chemicals for valuable plastics. Now, the consortium starts evaluation of the ideal conditions for industrial-scale testing in southern France where a steel mill of Arcelor Mittal and a chemical plant of material producer Covestro are close neighbours.

A union of giants: Chemical heavyweight BASF and Chinese petrochemical giant Sinopec plan a further cooperation for a new world-scale isononanol (INA) plant in Maoming, China. With this investment in plasticizers, the two partners could significantly increase their footprint in China's rubber and polymers business, industry experts believe.

Emerson has agreed to acquire UK-based Permasense, a provider of non-intrusive corrosion monitoring technologies for the offshore and onshore oil production, refining, chemical, power, pipelines, metals and mining and other industries.

The company has plans to carry out the production process at its Singaporean subsidiary, Mitsui Phenols Singapore. This move is expected to strengthen and further expand Mitsui Chemicals’ global supply.

Although salary increases for women outstripped their male counterparts, female engineering professionals in the UK still earn around 25 percent less by the age of forty.

The addition of a third crude oil unit in the Beaumont refinery will increase its crude processing capacity by more than 65 per cent, and enhance the refinery’s position thereby establishing it as a leader in the U.S. refining industry.

Speciality chemical company Perstorp plans to expand onto the 1,6-hexanediol market: The company has successfully entered the production of this key building block in industrial scales, speakers explained.