With the planned acquisition of Arc Building Products, Arkema wants to strengthen its position in Ireland’s growing construction adhesives market with a broader range of solutions and a local manufacturing footprint.

Clariant has plans to take over the leading provider of high value ingredients for the cosmetics and personal care industry Lucas Meyer Cosmetics from International Flavors & Fragrances. The deal is expected to strengthen Clariant’s position as a specialty chemical company and its footprint in North America.

Dr. Markus Kamieth has been appointed as the new chairman of BASF’s Board of Directors. He will succeed Dr. Martin Brudermüller, who has held the post since 2018.

Stamicarbon has been awarded the contracts by Shandong Lianmeng Chemical Company. Located in China, the firm’s grassroots urea melt and prilling plant will make use of Stamicarbon’s Ultra-Low Energy design.

Aiming to reduce carbon emissions, Sabic and Linde Engineering have teamed up to decarbonize the SD Ethylene Glycol Process. Sabic is committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with Paris Agreement goals, through various pathways including carbon capture and utilization.

Neste has begun the gradual transformation of its crude oil refinery in Porvoo, Finland into a leading renewable and circular solutions refining hub. The full transformation of the refinery is expected to be completed in 2030.

Hycc delays the green hydrogen project H2eron in Delfzijl to 2028 due to slow market development and rising costs. The European Renewable Energy Directive III impacts the timeline, pushing market maturity to around 2030. To mitigate costs, Hycc plans to increase H2eron's capacity to 50 MW and shifts from Nel to Norwegian alkaline electrolyzers for the project.

Sumitomo Chemical has already begun the construction of a pilot facility in Japan to demonstrate a new environmentally-friendly process for producing propylene directly from ethanol. The pilot unit is expected to be completed by the first half of 2025.

With this 750,000-tonne facility, Ineos Phenol aims to lower CO2 emissions by half per tonne of product. The unit is developed in Marl, Germany and is claimed to be Europe’s largest cumene facility.

Galp has awarded engineering, procurement services and construction management contracts to Technip Energies for an advanced biofuels unit and a green hydrogen unit for its Sines refinery in Portugal.