Chemical Engineering December 2022 - 12

Business News
LINEUP
ALBEMARLE
ARKEMA
ASCEND PERFORMANCE
MATERIALS
BASF
BAYER
BOREALIS
CLARIANT
DORF KETAL
EVONIK
HEXPOL
ICL GROUP
OQ CHEMICALS
ORBIA
RÖHM
SOLVAY
STORA ENSO
Plant Watch
Solvay resumes soda-ash
expansion in Wyoming
November 11, 2022 - Solvay S.A. (Brussels,
Belgium; www.solvay.com) plans to resume the
construction of its soda-ash capacity expansion
in Green River, Wyo. The investment totals
around $200 million, and the expansion will
raise the site's capacity to 600,000 metric tons
per year (m.t./yr). Production is expected to
start at the end of 2024.
Albemarle investing up to $540 million to
expand bromine facilities in Arkansas
November 11, 2022 - Albemarle Corp.
(Charlotte, N.C.; www.albemarle.com) announced
investments of up to $540 million to expand and
modernize two bromine facilities in Magnolia,
Ark. The planned investments have begun
and will continue through 2027. The sites
produce bromine and derivative products
used in fire safety, chemical synthesis, drilling
and completion fluids, water purification and
various other industrial applications.
Stora Enso launches bioplastics
pilot plant in Belgium
November 3, 2022 - Stora Enso Oyj (Helsinki,
Finland; www.storaenso.com) launched a new
bioplastics pilot plant in the Flanders region in
Belgium, which will produce furandicarboxylic
acid (FDCA), a major building block of the
bioplastic polyethylene furanoate (PEF). The
pilot facility will initially use industrially available
fructose to produce high-value chemicals and
materials for application testing. In the future,
the intention is to run the process on sugars
extracted from wood and other non-foodbased
biomass.
Röhm and OQ Chemicals break ground on
new world-scale MMA plant in Texas
October 28, 2022 - Röhm (Darmstadt, Germany;
www.roehm.com) and OQ Chemicals GmbH
(Monheim am Rhein, Germany; chemicals.
oq.com) officially broke ground on a new worldscale
methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant. The
new facility will be constructed by Röhm at
OQ Chemicals' production site at Bay City,
Tex. Here, OQ Chemicals will supply the new
plant with key raw materials and provide site
services and utilities to Röhm. Once completed
in early 2024, the new plant will produce
250,000 m.t./yr of MMA
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12
ICL Group to build LFP cathode-material
manufacturing plant in St. Louis
October 24, 2022 - ICL Group (Tel Aviv,
Israel; www.icl-group.com) plans to build
a $400-million lithium iron phosphate (LFP)
cathode active material (CAM) manufacturing
plant in St. Louis, Mo. This is expected to be
the first large-scale LFP material manufacturing
plant in the U.S. The plant is expected to be
operational by 2024.
Borealis announces plans for
first-of-its-kind recycling plant in Austria
October 24, 2022 - Borealis AG (Vienna,
Austria; www.borealisgroup.com) is designing
a first-of-its-kind commercial-scale advanced
mechanical-recycling plant to be located in
Schwechat, Austria. The new plant will have
the capacity to produce over 60,000 m.t./yr
of recycled polyolefin compounds. The first
volumes of recycled polyolefin products are
expected in 2025.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Bayer acquires German crop-protection
startup Targenomix
November 11, 2022 - Bayer AG (Leverkusen,
Germany; www.bayer.com) announced the
acquisition of German biotechnology startup
Targenomix. Targenomix, a spinoff from the Max
Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology,
uses novel systems biology and computational
life-science tools to identify new modes of
action for crop protection compounds.
Ascend Performance Materials acquires
majority stake in recycling firm
November 8, 2022 - Ascend Performance
Materials (Houston; www.ascendmaterials.
com) has purchased a majority stake in
California-based Circular Polymers, a recycler
of post-consumer, high-performance polymers
including polyamide 6 and 66, polypropylene
and polyester (PET). The deal provides Ascend
with a consistent supply of post-consumer
recycled materials for its product portfolios
of sustainable polyamides.
Solvay and Orbia forming PVDF joint
venture in North America
November 3, 2022 - Solvay and Orbia (Mexico
City, Mexico; www.orbia.com) announced their
entry into a joint venture (JV) framework agreement
to create a partnership for the production of
suspension-grade polyvinylidene fluoride
(PVDF). The total investment is estimated to
be around $850 million. Solvay and Orbia intend
to use two production sites in the U.S. for the
JV, one for raw materials and the other for
finished products. Both plants are expected
to be fully operational by 2026.
BASF acquires Cargill's
canola-seed plant in Idaho Falls
November 3, 2022 - BASF SE (Ludwigshafen,
Germany; www.basf.com) is expanding its higholeic
canola-seed production and processing
business in North America through its acquisition
from Cargill, Inc. (Minneapolis, Minn.; www.
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Chemical Engineering December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2022
