Specialty chemicals company Lanxess has set itself an ambitious climate protection target. By 2040, the group intends to become climate neutral and eliminate its greenhouse gas emissions from around 3.2 million metric tons of CO2e today.

BASF New Business has formally agreed to acquire the online 3D printing service provider Sculpteo. The agreement was signed on November 14, 2019 and is expected to become effective in the next few weeks pending regulatory approval by the relevant authorities.

Baker Hughes and Dussur have plans to form a chemicals joint venture which will focus on providing oilfield and industrial chemicals in Saudi Arabia. Baker Hughes will own 51 % of the new joint venture while Dussur will own 49 %.

The fire at ONGC’s effluent treatment plant in Uran, Maharashtra has been doused off, however the cause of the fire is yet to be known. Two employees suffered burn injuries in the process and were taken to the hospital for treatment.

Brahms Oil Refineries has awarded a contract to SNC-Lavalin to undertake a front-end engineering design (Feed) conversion to EPC contract for a 10,000 barrel per day crude oil refinery in Kamsar, Guinea.

A union of giants: Dow and Saudi Aramco recently announced the building of a joint-venture chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, 100 kilometers northwest of Dammam. Aramco officials expect the project to be the first of its kind in the kingdom's fast growing chemical industry.

Dupont Industrial Biosciences officially broke ground on its new site at the Leiden Bio Science Park in Oegstgeest, the Netherlands. The state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary facility will utilize the tools of modern biotechnology to make industrial processes more efficient and products more sustainable.

The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) has recently published its third progress report on the implementation of its Reach Dossier Improvement Action Plan. With this report, the companies involved in the action plan aim to update and enhance the data in ‘Reach’ registration dossiers.

Wison Engineering Services announced that its non-wholly owned affiliated company, Wison Engineering (China), has been awarded an EPFC (engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction) contract for one section of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) project in Texas by Formosa Plastics Corporation.

This paper investigates the technical and economical feasibility of several concepts for a 30 % capacity increase of an old ammonia plant. It shows an interesting way to overcome the limitations in the two most critical plant units: Reforming capacity is increased by a newly added autothermal reformer, while capacity is added to the ammonia synthesis by the Uhde Dual Pressure Process.