Chemical Engineering April 2019 - 12

Business News
LINEUP
AIR LIQUIDE
ASAHI KASEI
AXENS
BP
CELANESE
EVONIK
EXXONMOBIL
INEOS
INVISTA
JOHNSON MATTHEY
LINDE
MATHESON
MESSER
MITSUI CHEMICALS
OUTOTEC
PRAXAIR
SOLVAY
TOTAL
VIRENT
Plant Watch
Asahi Kasei plans LIB separator
capacity expansions
March 14, 2019 - Asahi Kasei Corp. (Tokyo,
Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) will enhance
its manufacturing infrastructure for lithiumion
battery (LIB) separator products at the
company's existing facilities in Moriyama, Japan
and North Carolina, with completion scheduled
for 2021. The investment for this project is around
¥30 billion ($270 million). This expansion will result
in a 300 million-m2/yr rise in wet-process
capacity and a 150 million-m2/yr rise in dryprocess
capacity.
Outotec to construct sulfuric acid
plant in Morocco
March 13, 2019 - Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland;
www.outotec.com) signed a contract with OCP
Group in Morocco for the construction of a
sulfuric acid plant for fertilizer production. The
€80-million order includes advanced proprietary
technologies, including a heat-recovery system,
as well as a converter, absorption towers and
an acid-distribution system.
Invista signs first Middle East technology
license for purified terephthalic acid
March 12, 2019 - Invista (Wichita, Kan.;
www.invista.com) and Pan-Asia PET Resin
(Guangzhou) Co. reached an agreement for
the licensing of Invista's purified terephthalic
acid (PTA) process technology at a new plant
to be located in Jizan Economic City, Saudi
Arabia. The planned PTA production capacity
is 1.25 million metric tons per year (m.t./yr).
This project signifies Invista's first technology
license in the Middle East.
Celanese to increase production capacity
for thermoplastic co-polyester in Italy
March 6, 2019 - Celanese Corp. (Dallas,
Tex.; www.celanese.com) plans to expand its
thermoplastic co-polyester production unit at
the Donegani facility in Ferrara, Italy. Celanese
recently added a solid-state polymerization
unit at the Donegani facility, which started
up in September 2018. Celanese expects to
further expand the unit's capacity by adding
another polymerization line to be completed
in the next 15 to 18 months.
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12
Mitsui to construct plant for long glassfiber-reinforced
polypropylene in China
March 1, 2019 - Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (MCI;
Tokyo; www.mitsuichem.com) will set up a
new facility to produce 3,500 m.t./yr of long
glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene (LGFPP)
at Chinese manufacturing subsidiary Mitsui
Advanced Composites (Zhongshan) Co., which
will join existing LGFPP sites in Japan and
the U.S. When the new facility commences
operations in September 2020, MCI's total
production capacity for LGFPP will increase
to 10,500 m.t./yr.
ExxonMobil moves forward with
construction of Baton Rouge PP plant
March 1, 2019 - ExxonMobil Corp. (Irving, Tex.;
www.exxonmobil.com) will fund the construction
of a new polypropylene (PP) unit in Baton Rouge,
La., which will expand production capacity
along the Gulf Coast by up to 450,000 m.t./yr.
Construction will begin in 2019 and startup is
anticipated by 2021.
Ineos to build new vinyl acetate
monomer plant in the U.K.
February 27, 2019 - INEOS (London; www.
ineos.com) will invest £150 million in Hull, U.K.
to construct a new vinyl acetate monomer (VAM)
plant. The capacity at the site is expected to
be 300,000 m.t./yr of VAM, a key component
in glass, adhesives, coatings, films and more.
Air Liquide to construct world's largest
proton-exchange membrane electrolyzer
February 25, 2019 - Air Liquide (Paris; www.
airliquide.com) plans to construct the largest
proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer
in the world, with a 20-MW capacity for the
production of carbon-free hydrogen. Air Liquide
will install the 20-MW electrolyzer unit to increase
the current capacity of its hydrogen facility
located in Bécancour, Canada by 50%.
Solvay to boost soda ash productivity
with expansion; new biomass boiler
February 25, 2019 - In the next two years,
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.
com) plans to undergo several measures to
increase production capacity of soda ash by
500,000 m.t./yr and of sodium bicarbonate
by 100,000 m.t./yr. Solvay is also investing
in a new biomass boiler at its soda ash plant
in Rheinberg, Germany, which will lower CO2
emissions by 190,000 m.t./yr when the boiler
comes onstream in May 2021.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Axens and ExxonMobil sign alkylation
alliance agreement
March 12, 2019 - ExxonMobil and Axens
(Rueill-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net)
have signed an alliance agreement for the
sublicense of ExxonMobil's Sulfuric Acid
Alkylation technology. Under the agreement,
Axens and ExxonMobil will market and deliver
all technologies associated within a petroleumrefinery
alkylation block, including Axens' feed
preparation process, n-butane isomerization
and ExxonMobil's Sulfuric Acid Alkylation. The
technologies will be offered under a single
license to be provided by Axens.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
APRIL 2019
http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp http://www.exxonmobil.com http://www.ineos.com http://www.outotec.com http://www.airliquide.com http://www.invista.com http://www.solvay http://www.celanese.com http://www.axens.net http://www.mitsuichem.com http://www.chemengonline.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering April 2019
