The Eramet group and Electricité de Strasbourg have collaborated and successfully announced the first pilot test which was able to extract lithium from geothermal brine in Alsace, France. The move is considered to be a major step forward for the European Geothermal Lithium Brine (Eugeli) project.

PKN Orlen has plans to expand the Olefins Complex at the Płock production unit in Poland. Once complete, the project is expected to be one of the most modern facilities in Europe. With this project, the company will join the group of the largest petrochemical producers in the world.

The latest recruitment news from the process industry starts with a bang. In addition, there are some rotational changes and strategic new hires to report. PROCESS worldwide summarises the news from the executive floors for you.

Trinseo has partnered with ETB for the development of purified bio-based 1,3-butadiene. Both the companies also plan to conduct a feasibility study for the construction of a dedicated bio-based 1,3-butadiene pilot plant in Europe which will aim to achieve a purity target of 99.7 %.

BASF produces two types of styrene with a mass balance approach – renewable feedstock based-styrene and styrene based on chemically recycled feedstock. Trinseo has secured the first supplies of styrene based on the two different kinds of circular feedstock and will use it to produce styrene butadiene rubber and polystyrene products.

By 2050, BASF wants to be climate-neutral. Based on recent progress in the development of CO2-reduced and CO2-free technologies, the company is simultaneously increasing its medium-term reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Perhaps the boldest chemical engineering project in decades. BASF, Sabic and Linde have plans to establish the project at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site in Germany. The partners will make use of renewable electricity for the project which aims at reducing CO2 emissions by as much as 90 %.

BASF and OMV have worked together on an innovative and sustainable technology for producing high-purity isobutene. The novel technology has now been installed at OMV´s new ISO C4 plant in Burghausen, Germany.

BASF has signed an agreement with Allied Carbon Solutions (ACS) Japan and entered into a strategic technology cooperation with Holiferm (UK) to develop a unique production process for biosurfactant products. With this move, the company aims to expand its global leading position in the bio-based surfactants and actives market.

Bota Bio is developing a next-generation biotechnology platform which is a combination of computation and cutting-edge biotechnology. The platform is expected to assist sustainable and economical production of high value products for a broad array of industrial applications.