Exact and reliable chemical analysis of feedstocks and products is very important in the manufacture of fine chemicals. Laboratory gas chromatographs are among the techniques traditionally used for this task, but pressure to improve process operations has brought change. Online process gas chromatography now provides significant benefits, as shown on a naphtha cracker.

The food vs. fuel debate has cast a dark shadow over the potentials of biofuels - now second generation processes aim to untap to huge heaps of biogenic residues that forestry and agriculture produce. One of them, the Bioliq process of KIT and Air Liquide, announces anew milestone; The start up of the second stage of its pilot plant...

Carbonization processes such as pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) expected to fulfil important roles in future bio-refinery concepts. However, until now a major problem is: These processes form waste waters that contain various environmental hazardous substances. Researchers in Potsdam/Germany seem to crack it.

CB&I has been awarded a contract valued at approximately $ 40 million by DuPont to provide engineering, procurement and construction for an ethane cracking furnace expansion project at Dupont's Sabine River Works ethylene plant in Orange, Texas.

Refinery modernizes safety systems in just two weeks and assures plant availability for the future—In September 2014, the German refinery Heide Refinery used two weeks of planned downtime at its pyrolysis plant to migrate to new safety systems. The technology selection emphasized plant availability and a high level of investment security, while extensive preliminary testing guaranteed a smooth changeover.

Graphene is making the transition from research journals to commercial applications. This article discusses a new class of nano-material and their commercialization in wide ranging applications.

Jacobs Engineering received a contract from Encina Chemicals to provide operations readiness (OR) support services for its new benzene toluene xylene (BTX) processing plant in Gillette, Wyoming.

Technip has been awarded by Unipetrol a significant lump sum contract to supply four cracking furnaces for their ethylene plant in Zaluzi, Czech Republic.

The unit is part of the firm’s second grassroots petrochemical complex which is expected to extract benzene, toluene and xylenes from pyrolysis gasoline.

With natural gas prices down by three-quarters since 2005, cheap raw materials and energy fuel the US reindustrialisation. Market analyst IHS believes that up to € 70 billion will be invested by 2025, doubling North America’s production of basic chemicals and plastics — is America the promised land for the process industry?