When handling hazardous substances at certain levels of toxicity (OEB 4-5), isolation is simply a must. Containment is not only required to protect the operator but also to preserve product quality, essential in aseptic environments. Here you can read when flexible solutions are best applied for closed processes and what advantages and disadvantages they have in comparison with fixed systems.

Jacobs Engineering has been selected by Anglo American to provide engineering services to the company’s Los Bronces copper mine — one of the world’s largest copper mines with a processing capacity of 150 tonnes.

The development of the petrochemical industry in the Middle East speeds up. Now Shell and Qatar Petroleum agreed to cooperate on a future world scale petrochemical complex in Ras Laffan/Qatar.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) announced the successful firing test of a large-scale gas turbine fuelled by a 30 % hydrogen fuel mix.

Air Liquide and major Korean chemical company Kumho Mitsui Chemical (KMCI) expanded their cooperation with a recently signed long-term contract, according to which the industrial gases company will increase its supply of both hydrogen and carbon monoxide at the Yeosu industrial complex.

Time and again, the media sets its sights on pipelines. Nord Stream, which now is in operation, provided a score of headlines. Construction of South Stream has also started, a triumph for Russia. The USA is experiencing a gas boom, yet exports are trailing behind – at least for the moment. Whatever the case, valve makers always are in the winning team.

How to grow capacity, increase product quality and optimise productivity? This was the question for the chemical company Arkema on the occasion of implementing a new process control solution for its production lines of ultrafine polyamide powders. The result ist impressive as this case study shows.

The world’s leading event for the plastics industry projects the image of an industry in upheaval. Demand remains strong for lightweight materials and composites, but new competitors are putting chemical companies under pressure. Hopes are pinned on customer-specific solutions and alternative raw materials to provide a breakthrough.

Flexibility is the clincher for contract fillers, all the more so if they have to package biopharmaceutical medicines. The new vial line for a contract filler in the United States combines insulator technology with freeze-drying. The line will be on view at Achema.

In a joint research project called Rheticus, Evonik and Siemens are working on electrolysis and fermentation processes that use electricity from renewable sources and bacteria to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into specialty chemicals.