Evonik has completed the expansion of its precipitated silica plant in Chester, Pennsylvania: The speciality chemicals company has just brought additional 20,000 tons production capacity on–stream.

As of April 1, 2016, Dr. Robert Gnann (51) has taken over as president of Wacker Silicones. He succeeds Dr. Christian Hartel, who was appointed to the Wacker Group’s Executive Board in early November 2015.

Wintershall, a subsidiary of the world's biggest chemical company BASF, acquires additional shares in oil and gas fields from Statoil for US$1.25 billion. The new fields shall increase the company's daily production in Norway to around 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent.

Worley Parsons has been awarded a project management consultancy (PMC) contract by Persero in Indonesia and an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Chevron for the China Manufacturing Plant Project in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China.

Mitsui Elastomers Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui based in Singapore, plans to raise its production capacity for Tafmer high-performance elastomers.

Process digitalization: The Solvay/Butachimie chemical platform in Chalampé is an illustrative example for the factory of the future — Using the simulation tool Simit from Siemens the company realizes the changeover from the previously used process control system to the PCS 7 system, which is a Siemens tool too.

Danish catalyst specialist Haldor Topsoe announced that it was going to acquire full ownership of German Ferrostaal Topsoe Projects GmbH. The acquisition adds project planning and development know-how to the company's portfolio of high-performance catalyst and proprietory technologies for the chemical and refining industries.

Toyo Engineering has been awarded a contract for a project of Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (CFCL), a major private sector fertilizer producer in India, to construct a large-scale fertilizer complex in Kota, Rajasthan, India.

Chevron Phillips Chemical has reached final investment decision to expand the low viscosity polyalphaolefins (PAO) capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas by 10,000 metric tons per year or about 20 percent.

A new method could revolutionize numerous processes in the chemical industry. Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology in Jena (Leibniz HKI) developed a new synthesis method in organic chemistry that enables the production of numerous pharmaceuticals without the use of toxic heavy metals.