Products
BASF to cease operations on three plants at the Ludwigshafen site in 2025
BASF will end the production of adipic acid, cyclododecanone (CDon) and cyclopentanone (CPon) at the Ludwigshafen site in 2025. The company has taken this decision as part of the ongoing strategic review of its production setup at the Ludwigshafen site to ensure competitiveness under changing market conditions.
Lummus to supply ethylene technology to Silleno's PE plant in Kazakhstan
Lummus Technology announced a contract award from Silleno for an ethylene unit, which will be part of the first polyethylene plant to be built in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
AFC leads financing for Africa's largest gas-to-methanol complex
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the continent’s leading infrastructure solutions provider, is arranging a project development facility to support Africa’s largest gas-to-methanol plant, with the aim of significantly reducing CO2 emissions by offsetting flaring of natural gas and turning it instead into a valuable chemical for solvents, paints, plastics and car parts.
BASF outlines its sustainable roadmap towards a circular economy
BASF’s Performance Materials division revealed its strategic roadmap toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and highlights key milestones on its way to a circular economy.
World’s first of its kind green ammonia plant inaugurated by Skovgaard Energy, Vestas and Topsoe
Topsoe, Skovgaard Energy and Vestas inaugurated a 5,000-tpy green ammonia plant in Ramme, Northwest Jutland, Denmark.
ADNOC deploys pioneering AI-enabled process optimization technology
Following successful initial operations, ADNOC announced the deployment of an industry leading artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled process optimization technology--Neuron 5--across all ADNOC facilities across thousands of critical pieces of equipment essential for production, including compressors, valves and generators.
Utilizing pilot plant operations for new chemical process technology development: A roadmap to scale up success and commercial plant safety
To demonstrate a new chemical process technology (flowsheet, raw materials, product) or improve an existing one, pilot plants are designed and operated at a scale between laboratory benchtop and commercial scale—often with specific goals for operability, product quality, economics and process safety. Identifying where potential safety, technical risks or uncertainties may occur is always a key goal in evaluating a new process.
The purification of benzoic acid using dividing wall columns
In one recent project for a customer based in Asia, the authors’ company suggested the combination of distillation and crystallization techniques to obtain high-quality purified benzoic acid. Encouraged by the successful startup of this processing train, the customer began to schedule a second project. The authors’ company was asked to optimize the purification process to improve cost and operational efficiencies. The two existing columns, which remove lights and heavies, respectively, from the crude benzoic acid feedstock were investigated to identify key opportunities. The feasibility study based on the feed composition confirmed that the existing columns could be converted into a single dividing wall column (DWC).
The attractive market opportunity for synthetic graphite: Graphite as an energy transition material (4)
Given the attractive demand projection, investors must understand the benefits and return on investment for natural and synthetic graphite routes. This article establishes the pros and cons for each, and specifically highlights the emerging opportunity for upgrading and repurposing smaller petcoke units to needle coke units, therefore contributing to fulfilling the rising demand for synthetic graphite.
Utilize a hydrogen reactions lab to optimize renewable fuels processing
Leading technology developers in the refining space are utilizing various catalysts to enhance the adjusted reaction chemistry, but this does not directly address how to optimize hydrogen utilization for the hydrodeoxygenation and isomerization/cracking processing steps. To ensure the right equipment outlay and calibration for these hydrogenation applications, replicating the process in a lab setting can help identify efficiencies and yield improvements for a fraction of the cost that a refiner would incur attempting to achieve that optimization through modifications at commercial scale.

- AFPM/API: President Trump officially overturns California (U.S.) gas car ban 6/12
- Decision on oil refiner Italiana Petroli's sale expected around end-June 6/12
- EIA: U.S. crude stocks fall, gasoline and distillate inventories rise as refining activity increases 6/12
- AB Foods holds off bioethanol plant closure decision until June 25 6/12
- EU to subsidize high volume of greener aviation fuel to boost airline demand 6/12
- Solvay, Veolia inaugurate new unit for recycling industrial flue gas treatment residues in Meurthe-et-Moselle, France 6/12