At Ercros’ Vila-seca II factory in Tarragona, Spain, the firm has replaced its old catalytic oxidation technology plant with a new thermal oxidation technology plant to treat and reduce gaseous emissions resulting from the PVC process.

The new world-scale project will be integrated with Aramco and Total’s existing Satorp refinery in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. It will assist the refinery to convert refinery off-gases, naphtha, ethane and natural gasoline into higher value chemicals.

Lyondell Basell has commissioned the world’s largest propylene oxide (PO) and tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) facility in Texas, USA. With a capacity of 470 thousand metric tons of PO and one million metric tons of TBA annually, the unit aims at optimizing production.

Eaton has expanded and optimized its filter media range containing activated carbon with upgraded depth filter sheets which are available in the versions ACF 02 with an activated carbon content of 1,000 g/m² and ACF 07.10 with 420 g/m² activated carbon content.

BASF recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new polyethylene plant at its Zhanjiang Verbund site in China. The facility is expected to have a capacity of 500,000 metric tons of polyethylene every year and is scheduled to start up in 2025.

Albemarle has inaugurated its new plant La Negra III/IV in Antofagasta, Chile which is expected to double its lithium production and reduce the firm’s water consumption by 30 % per metric ton. With an investment of 500 plus million dollars, the facility will include R&D laboratories and facilities for the complex chemical processes.

In a new series, PROCESS looks at the individual sectors of the chemical industry in China. In the second part of the series, after the fertiliser industry, the focus is on the petrochemical industry. In the wake of the new five-year plan, the industry is expected to grow and secure China's self-sufficiency.

Neste and Air Canada have expanded their partnership and Neste will now be supplying an additional 7,500 tons of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to Air Canada which will be used to power the airline’s flights from the San Francisco International Airport.

Pfeiffer Vacuum has launched Speedair 3050, an all-in-one solution for nonporous pharmaceutical containers. The solution offers a comprehensive global non-destructive testing approach for containers.

OQ Chemicals has launched a new pilot plant for customized esters in Oberhausen, Germany. The new plant will help the firm to produce small quantities of esters for test purposes which can later on be produced on a large-scale.