Filtration centrifuges provide a good method for mechanically separating suspended solids from liquids. Separation in a centrifugal field generated by equipment rotating at high speed has a number of advantages compared to simple vacuum and pressure based techniques.

Chemical production in Leverkusen has one foot in the future. The F³ project was launched to ensure that the European chemical industry remains competitive in the world market. PROCESS took a look behind the scenes.

Oil as a natural resource is becoming scarcer and more expensive and there is a need to look at eco-friendly ways of extracting it, thereby reducing CO2 emissions. White biotechnology offers a solution: scientists are now using microorganisms such as bacteria to generate substances for the production of polymers. The advantage is that these miniature biochemical factories run on renewable resources or agricultural waste converting it into valuable chemicals.

One industry sector is responsible for more than one half of construction spending by manufacturing in the United States: American chemistry is going strong and stronger. Despite uncertainties and contractions, the sector grows steadily. And the best might be yet to come…

LyondellBasell restarts its methanol plant at Channelview, Texas, on schedule to take advantage of the low cost feedstock from US shale gas. The unit had been out of service since 2004 due to the rising cost of natural gas, the key feedstock for methanol production.

With a production capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year, the new plant is expected to commence as a brownfield investment and will be situated in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. The produced rubber bitumen will be used to build more durable asphalt roads with higher load capacity and less maintenance costs.

Verdezyne has reached an agreement with Bio-Xcell Malaysia to construct Verdezyne’s first commercial-scale renewable chemicals manufacturing facility in Bio-Xcell’s premier biotechnology and ecosystem park in Nusajaya, Iskandar, in southern Malaysia. It will be the world´s first bio-based plant for the production of Dodecanedioic Acid (DDDA).

Sinochem Hongrun Petrochemicals has plans to use Honeywell UOP’s Isoalky ionic liquids alkylation technology to produce cleaner-burning fuels at its refinery complex in China. The specialised technology is the maiden successful liquid alkylation technology to be introduced in more than 75 years.

How can you accelerate the pace in the Chemical Process Industry (CPI) and reduce time to market? The container concept developed within the framework of the Copiride Project provides some answers.

Enterprise Products Partners plans to construct a new isobutane dehydrogenation (iBDH) unit in Mont Belvieu with a capacity of 425,000 tons per year of isobutylene.