Fluor has finished the mechanical construction of The Dow Chemical Company’s new ethylene production facility in Freeport, Texas on schedule.

LSB Industries El Dorado facility signs a contract for a new nitric acid plant, and completes the reconstruction and resumes production at its sulfuric acid plant.

Not much is possible without catalysts: More than 80 % of all chemically manufactured products undergo a catalytic step during their production. The active material is usually platinum or another precious metal, so production is correspondingly expensive and requires several steps. Physicists at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) have now filed a patent application for a process that produces highly active and long-term stable catalyst material in a single step.

The 750,000 tonne plant is expected to be built in Marl, Germany and will support customer ambitions as well as secure the supply of raw materials to the Ineos plants in Gladbeck and Antwerp.

Haldor Topsoe has plans to build a 10 kg/hour methanol plant to demonstrate the company’s electrified and extremely compact e SMR Methanol technology for cost-competitive production of sustainable methanol from biogas.

Since the market for a new plasticizer, DPHP, is increasingly strong, Perstorp plans to invest in new capacity for production of valeraldehyde and its derivatives.

HaloPolymer experts presented an analytical overview of the fluorspar global market. Main market trend, according to the company, is reducing volume of extracted raw materials in China and geographic shift in production.

Mitsui Chemicals announced that the Company will take its competitive edge in its world top share ophthalmic lens monomers and coatings & engineering materials to the next level by constructing a large scale plant for XDI within its Omuta Works (Kyushu, Japan).

Chevron Phillips Chemical will build a pilot plant for polyethylene research, including new catalyst and polymer development, as well as polymer performance enhancements.

Energy, food and medicine – our modern society wood not be possible without the discoveries and inventions of the chemical age. But what are the most important chemical inventions ever? IChemE asked professionals for their favourites - and here are the winners...