Chemical Engineering December 2019 - 11

Business News
Plant Watch
Wacker starts up new silicon-metal
production plant in Norway
November 15, 2019 - Wacker Chemie AG's
(Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) new
silicon-metal production plant officially went
on stream at the Holla site in Norway, following
over two years of construction. The new furnace
is one of the largest of its kind in the world
and increases the Holla site's total capacity
by more than 40%. A total of around €100
million was invested in the new plant.
Teijin Aramid moves forward
with capacity expansion
November 13, 2019 - Teijin Aramid B.V.
(Arnhem, the Netherlands; www.teijinaramid.
com) began a second round of activities to
increase para-aramid fiber production, targeting
more than 25% capacity increase in five years.
After the first phase of expansion through debottlenecking,
the company now moves into
the major phase of investment, realizing the full
increased capacity by 2022. The expansion
projects will take place in two plants in Delfzijl
and Emmen, the Netherlands. Delfzijl is the
production site for monomers and polymers,
and the Emmen plant is used for spinning.
McDermott wins AMS technology
contract from Formosa Chemicals
November 8, 2019 - McDermott International,
Inc. (Houston; www.mcdermott.com) has
been awarded a technology contract by
Formosa Chemicals Industries Ningbo Ltd.
for an alpha-methylstyrene (AMS) recovery
unit in Ningbo, China. This will utilize AMS
technology jointly licensed by Versalis (San
Donato Milanese, Italy; www.versalis.eni.com)
and McDermott's Lummus Technology to recover
10,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of AMS.
Avantium opens plant-based MEG
demonstration plant
November 7, 2019 - Avantium (Amsterdam,
the Netherlands; www.avantium.com) has
inaugurated its plant-based monoethylene glycol
(MEG) demonstration factory in Chemie Park
in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The demonstration
plant has an industrially relevant capacity of
10 m.t./yr, and will also produce plant-based
monopropylene glycol. Avantium says it is
planning construction of a commercial plant
aimed for startup in 2024.
Perstorp breaks ground in India to
significantly boost Penta business
November 7, 2019 - Perstorp AB (Malmö,
Sweden; www.perstorp.com) has unveiled
plans to invest in the construction of a new
pentaerythritol (Penta) production facility in Gujarat,
India. Construction of the Gujarat plant started
in October 2019, with commercial production
planned to start in early 2022. The site is designed
to produce 40,000 m.t./yr of Penta, which is
used in coatings, lubricants and antioxidants.
Hexion to expand phenolic resin
production capacity in Australia
November 6, 2019 - Hexion Inc. (Columbus,
Ohio; www.hexion.com) plans to add phenolic
resin capacity as the latest expansion of its
adhesives and binders business at its Brimbank,
Australia site. Construction of the new reactor
and associated infrastructure is expected to
begin in early 2020 and is expected to come
online in the first quarter of 2021.
Showa Denko to begin commercial
production of 1,3-butylene glycol
November 5, 2019 - Showa Denko K.K.
(SDK; Tokyo; www.sdk.co.jp) has decided
to commercialize 1,3-butylene glycol (1,3BG),
which is mainly used as raw material
for cosmetics. SDK will finish installation of
facilities to produce 1,3-BG in its Oita Complex
in Japan by the end of 2019, and plans to start
sale of the product in April 2020.
Linde starts up two air-separation units at
Taixing Jinyan ethylene oxide facility
October 29, 2019 - Linde plc (Guildford, U.K.;
www.linde.com) started up two plants to supply
oxygen and nitrogen to Taixing Jinyan Chemical
Technology Co. to support the production of
ethylene oxide. The plants, with total combined
production capacity of 29,000 Nm3/h, will
also supply gases to other customers in the
Taixing Economic Development Zone.
Umicore opens new facility in Korea for
the production of fuel-cell catalysts
October 23, 2019 - Umicore N.V. (Brussels,
Belgium; www.umicore.com) inaugurated its
new production facility for fuel-cell catalysts
in SongDo Incheon City (near Seoul), South
Korea. The facility will support the growth
of Hyundai Motors Group, as well as other
automotive customers. The plant is expected
to ramp up production in 2020 and also allows
for further expansion.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Lanxess to sell organotin
product line to PMC Group
November 13, 2019 - The European subsidiary
of PMC Group N.A., Inc. (Mount Laurel,
N.J.; www.pmc-group.com) will acquire the
organotin specialties product line from the
Organometallics business of Lanxess AG
(Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com). The
acquired business includes Lanxess' global
organotin catalyst, organotin specialties and
intermediates product lines.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
DECEMBER 2019
LINEUP
AIR LIQUIDE
ALPEK
ALTIVIA
AVANTIUM
DAELIM
DOW
EVONIK
FIRMENICH
HEXION
KRATON
LANXESS
LINDE
LOTTE CHEMICAL
MCDERMOTT
PERSTORP
PMC GROUP
SAINT-GOBAIN
SHOWA DENKO
TEIJIN ARAMID
UMICORE
VERSALIS
WACKER
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http://www.wacker.com http://www.hexion.com http://www.teijinaramid http://www.sdk.co.jp http://www.linde.com http://www.mcdermott.com http://www.versalis.eni.com http://www.umicore.com http://www.avantium.com http://www.pmc-group.com http://www.lanxess.com http://www.perstorp.com http://www.chemengonline.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering December 2019

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