The explosion at Wacker's plant in Charleston on September 7 was caused by a technical defect prompting a leak of hydrogen which subsequently caught fire, thereby severely damaging a small, but important facility of the production plant.

Coal and lignite are the principal fuels used in many power plants world wide. Although their characteristics appear to be almost same, some differences do exist which set them apart totally. Variations in boiler design also present many challenges and system design has to take care of these issues.

Succinity, the joint venture between Corbion Purac and BASF for the production and commercialization of biobased succinic acid, has announced the successful start-up of its first commercial production facility.

New materials for new markets: Lanxess strengthens its Asian presence by establishing local research and development facilities. The German company has recently opened a new facility for the devlopment of plastics and polymers in Honk Kong...

Holding company J.P. Morgan buys speciality chemicals firm: One Equity Partners, a global private investment arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co has taken over Peroxychem, the former FMC division FMC Global Peroxygens.

Device integration: The first stage finish has been reached—the FDI specification has been approved and handed over to the IEC, while simultaneously the first version of the developer tool has been made available. Is that the end of it? On the contrary, as all protagonists assert. Things are just getting started!

If you want to see the checkered flag, you need to get your pit stop strategy right. The same applies to plant inspection, maintenance and revamp. With good turnaround organization and management, a plant shutdown can be turned into a competitive weapon. We were in The Netherlands to witness a refinery turnaround.

Lanxess celebrates the opening of Asia's most modern butyl rubber plant as well as the companies biggest investment project ever. The German speciality chemicals specialists have invested around € 400 millions in the new 100.000 tons/year facility at Jurong Island...

Airgas has signed a long-term agreement to build an air separation unit (ASU) to supply tonnage oxygen, nitrogen and argon via pipeline to Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa, a subsidiary of Nucor Corporation, at its steel manufacturing plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Solvay plans to cut costs in Europe by € 100 million per year as of 2016 – plans that also include the closure of a plant in Portugal in restructuring measures at several other sites...