After successfully concluding the FEED study in June 2018, Borealis has taken the final investment decision for a new, world-scale propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant. The facility with a capacity of 750,000 tonnes per year will be located at the existing production site in Kallo (Antwerp), Belgium. The plant is scheduled to start up in the first half of 2022.

This transformation can be linked to the firm’s recent acquisition by The Carlyle Group and GIC. With a change in name, the company aims to become one of the leading organisations for the global speciality chemicals market.

Cell cultures and microorganisms play an essential role in the development processes in modern pharmaceutics and biotechnology. Since they react very sensitively to external influences, the conditions during the reproduction process must be precisely managed and monitored. This includes the temperature, pH value or dissolved oxygen, for example. The cell density numbers among the most important process characteristics and can be determined on the basis of optical density of a medium, for example.

The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has plans to expand the refining capacity of its Panipat refinery by 60 % in India. The company also intends to install catalytic dewaxing and polypropylene units at its refinery.

Sumitomo Chemical held a completion ceremony for its new production line of feed additive methionine at its Ehime Works in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. The investment in the new manufacturing facility represents one of the largest investments made by the company in Japan.

Clariant announced the appointment of Hans Bohnen as the newest member of its Executive Committee. Hans Bohnen has been with the company for almost 10 years and is currently the company’s Head of Global Business Services.

With an investment of 5.4 billion dollars, Enegix Energy has launched the Base One green hydrogen project in collaboration with the State Government of Ceará, Brazil. The mega plant is expected to produce over 600 million kg of green hydrogen annually.

Sonatrach and Total have signed two agreements as part of the comprehensive partnership announced in 2017. This includes a new concession contract to jointly develop the Erg Issouane gas field located on the TFT Sud permit, signed by Sonatrach, Total and Alnaft (the National Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbon Resources).

It starts with a bang: Covestro has launched the next level of its flagship project 'Dream Production'. The materials specialist launched a brand-new production site in Dormagen/Germany, which produces polyols for plastic foams by using CO2 as a feedstock. The secret behind this revolutionary process is a special catalysts that helps to save around 20% of common crude based feedstock...

Vinnolit has plans to introduce a base chemical with reduced CO2 footprint in 2021. The green caustic soda will assist industry players to reduce their own carbon footprint and develop more climate-friendly products.