Bayer Technology Services wants to stay on the growth curve. For that to happen, the company has to find the right balance between its internal and external customer base. Dr. Dirk Van Meirvenne, who took over as CEO on June 1st, answered a series of questions from PROCESS Editor-in-Chief Gerd Kielburger.

BASF commissioned Rockwell Automation to modernize an automation system in a loading bay used for polymer dispersions at the company’s Ludwigshafen Verbund site in Germany. With only eight months to plan the new system and just three days for commissioning, the project required an extraordinarily structured approach and an intensive test phase. The result is a system with high levels of flexibility and availability as well as easier maintenance.

Users increasingly look at the foreseeable lifetime costs of a planned investment when making their investment decisions. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is, in that regard, always also a question of how good the seal engineering is. How long do seals in fact last? The Parker Seals group has developed processes which not only investigate this question, but provide the answers. They make forecasting of lifetimes possible where previously they were impossible in this way.

Celanese announced the expansion of its Pibiflex and Riteflex TPC (thermoplastic co-polyester) production unit at the Donegani facility in Ferrara, Italy. This step is intended support the continued growth of its global engineered materials business.

India's vaccine industry ranks third in terms of volume globally in the world. Yet the question remains of why deaths are being reported even after immunization against a disease. One of the reasons for this is the improper transport of vaccines which cause the vaccine to lose its effectiveness. Use of phase change materials (PCMs) can help reduce vaccine wastage during transportation.

NatureWork overhauls its bio–polymers prododuction: New production technology will increase capacity at the NatureWorks' Blair, Nebraska, facility to 150,000 metric tonnes per annum, making new performance grades available in the second quarter 2013.

Industry is under pressure to develop sustainable processing methods. With this in mind, the List kneader processor provides an alternative to the stirred-tank reactor for the production of polymers, allowing solvents to be eliminated from the reaction step. The kneader processor is also an alternative to the extruder for polymer devolatilization.

Mc Dermott International has bagged a technology contract which includes basic engineering and technology licensing as well as detailed engineering and material supply of heaters for Irkutsk Oil Company’s 650 KTA ethylene plant in Russia.

Brussels/Belgium – Solvay Solexis, a world leader in Polyvinyledene fluoride (PVDF), will increase the production capacity for this specialty fluoropolymer, which it markets under the Solef brand name.

On completion of the work at Zap Sib Neftekhim, polypropylene production at Sibur’s facilities in Tobolsk is expected to total 1 mtpa. With this capacity, it is expected to become one of the largest in the world and hold the biggest production capacity in Russia.