Chemical Engineering May 2023 - 10

Business News
LINEUP
AIR PRODUCTS
ASCEND ELEMENTS
CLARIANT
DSM
ENBRIDGE
EVONIK
GEVO
INEOS
KRATON
KURARAY
LANXESS
LG CHEM
MERCK
MITSUI CHEMICALS
NESTE
PTTGC
RESONAC
SK GEO CENTRIC
SUMITOMO
TOTALENERGIES
YARA CLEAN AMMONIA
Plant Watch
Evonik plans to double global
PEBA production capacity
April 14, 2023 - Evonik Industries AG (Essen,
Germany; www.evonik.com) is doubling its
global capacity for polyether block amide (PEBA)
with a twofold approach, including a major
expansion of its production plant in Shanghai
and an optimization project at its production
facility in Marl, Germany. Construction at the
Shanghai site starts in Fall 2023.
Clariant opens new
catalyst plant in China
April 13, 2023 - Clariant AG (Muttenz,
Switzerland; www.clariant.com) announced the
opening of its new Catofin catalyst-production
site in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China,
representing an investment of CHF 80 million
(around $90 million). Catofin is a catalyst for
propane dehydrogenation, which is used in
the production of olefins, such as propylene.
Merck invests $300 million to expand
specialty gases plant in Pennsylvania
April 13, 2023 - EMD Electronics, the electronics
business of Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany;
www.merckgroup.com) in the U.S. and Canada,
announced a roughly $300-million investment
to expand its specialty gases facility located
in Hometown, Pa. According to Merck, this
expansion will make the site the world's largest
integrated specialty-gases manufacturing facility.
Air Products to build new nitrogen plants
and extend pipeline network in Malaysia
April 10, 2023 - Air Products (Lehigh Valley,
Pa.; www.airproducts.com) will build, own,
and operate two nitrogen plants in Penang,
Malaysia at the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial
Zone and Batu Kawan Industrial Park. The
company will also further extend its pipeline
network in the region.
Resonac to raise production
capacity for adhesive films
April 5, 2023 - Resonac Corp. (Tokyo; formerly
Showa Denko; www.resonac.com) is increasing
its capacity to produce adhesive films with the
functions for both dicing tape and die-bonding
films used in semiconductor packaging process.
With this expansion, production capacity will
be raised by around 60% beginning in 2026.
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10
Ascend Elements opens North America's
largest facility for LIB recycling
April 5, 2023 - Ascend Elements (Westborough,
Mass.; www.ascendelements.com) opened
its first commercial-scale lithium-ion battery
(LIB) recycling facility. Located in Covington,
Ga., the $50-million facility is North America's
largest facility for recycling electric-vehicle
batteries, with a capacity to process 30,000
metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of used LIBs
and manufacturing scrap.
Neste progresses scaleup of wasteplastic
processing at Porvoo refinery
April 3, 2023 - Neste Corp. (Espoo, Finland;
www.neste.com) has successfully concluded
its second series of industrial-scale processing
runs with liquefied waste plastic at its renewableproducts
refinery in Porvoo, Finland. The goal
of the processing runs is to further increase
the company's understanding of how different
types of waste plastics behave during chemical
recycling in existing refinery processes. Since
Neste's first processing run in 2020, the company
has concluded a total of six successful runs,
processing close to 3,000 m.t. of liquefied
waste plastic in total.
Kraton announces SBS copolymer
capacity expansion in Ohio
March 31, 2023 - Kraton Corp. (Houston;
www.kraton.com) announced a significant
expansion of its styrene-butadiene-styrene
(SBS) block copolymers supply capability at its
Belpre, Ohio facility. The production capacity
is expected to be increased by approximately
24,000 m.t./yr by 2025.
Yara Clean Ammonia and Enbridge to
construct blue ammonia plant in Texas
March 31, 2023 - Yara Clean Ammonia
(Oslo, Norway; www.yaracleanammonia.com)
and Enbridge Inc. (Houston; www.enbridge.
com) are jointly developing a world-scale,
low-carbon ammonia-production facility as
equal partners. The proposed facility, which
includes autothermal reforming with carbon
capture, will be located at the Enbridge Ingleside
Energy Center (EIEC) near Corpus Christi,
Tex. Once operational, the plant will have a
capacity of 1.2-1.4 million m.t./yr. Total project
investment is expected in the range of $2.6
to 2.9 billion, with production startup in 2027
or 2028.
SK Geo Centric to build new ethylene
acrylic acid plant in China
March 24, 2023 - SK Geo Centric (SKGC;
Seoul, South Korea; eng.skgeocentric.com)
signed an agreement with Zhejiang Satellite
Petrochemical to build an ethylene acrylic acid
(EAA) manufacturing plant in Lianyungang,
China, expecting it to be completed by 2028
with a targeted production capacity of 50,000
m.t./yr. This will be the fourth EAA plant at the
site. The third plant is under construction,
with completion expected in 2025. With the
completion of the fourth EAA plant, SKGC's
global production capacity for EAA will increase
to 140,000 m.t./yr.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM MAY 2023
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Chemical Engineering May 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering May 2023
