Brenntag Buys South African Water Treatment Facility
Brenntag has expanded its capabilities in South Africa with the purchase of a Johannesburg facility focused on water treatment solutions. The purchase price was not disclosed.
News
Baumann Calls US Legal System Unjust
At his last – virtual – annual results press conference before handing over the CEO’s job to Bill Anderson in May, in addition to reviewing figures for 2022 and trying to assess the still clouded look for 2023, outgoing Bayer chief Werner Baumann took the opportunity to criticize the US legal system.
ExxonMobil and SK Collaborate on Blue Ammonia
ExxonMobil has signed a Heads of Agreement with South Korea’s SK Inc. to collaborate on blue ammonia. Under the terms of the deal, SK expects to offtake supplies of blue ammonia from ExxonMobil’s proposed hydrogen and ammonia facility in Baytown, Texas, USA.
Evonik Invests in Chinese Battery Maker SuperC
German chemical producer Evonik is investing in battery maker Hefei Haizhou New Material Co (SuperC), a Chinese company specialized in graphene materials, which it describes as a technological leader in materials that improve the range, robustness, charging speed and service life of lithium batteries.
Celanese and Mitsui Extend Strategic Partnerships
US chemical group Celanese is extending one existing strategic collaboration with Japan’s Mitsui and establishing a new one. Added to the 50:50 methanol joint venture will be a new 30:70 JV in food ingredients, in which the Japanese partner will hold the majority.
EL MAT Sustainable Solutions Turns “Waste” Water into Valuable Products
The South African start-up EL MAT Sustainable Solutions found a way to produce electricity, purified water and fertilizers from wastewater – without the introduction of hazardous materials or expensive feedstocks.
BASF Plans Major Cutbacks at Ludwigshafen
Major changes are in store for BASF, as the world’s largest chemical producer comes to grips with severe pressure on profits from soaring energy prices.
Imperative and RSI Combine Oil & Gas Chemicals
Imperative Chemical Partners and RSI Chemicals – both based in Texas, USA – are merging to form what they said will be one of the largest oil & gas chemicals businesses focused on the US land market.
Avantium and Origin Partner on PEF
Avantium is partnering with Origin Materials to accelerate the mass production of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and plant-based, fully recyclable plastic, polyethylene furanoate (PEF).
CEPSA and Fertiberia Partner on Hydrogen in Huelva
Spanish companies CEPSA and Fertiberia – two of the country’s largest hydrogen consumers – have agreed to jointly develop a large-scale green hydrogen plant in Huelva, decarbonizing both their production processes.
Covestro to Build its Largest TPU Site in China
German engineering plastics producer Covestro has decided to build its largest-ever thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) site at Zhuhai, China.
EPA to Award $550 Million for Environmental Justice
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has received $550 million from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to spend on measures to remediate pollution and in some cases protect communities from toxic emissions.
Solvay Joins Genesis Consortium to Boost Biotech
Solvay’s venture capital fund has joined the Genesis Consortium, a global alliance of venture capital firms and corporations that support startups leveraging biotechnology to promote both human and planetary health.
Fluor Wins Work on Dow Canada Cracker Complex
US-based international contractor Fluor has been awarded a reimbursable contract to provide front-end engineering and design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for Dow’s proposed cracker and derivatives project in Canada.
Ineos Acquires First-Ever US Shale Asssets
Ineos has at last clinched a deal that its founder Jim Ratcliffe has had in his sights for about a decade. The UK-steered olefins and polyolefins giant this week announced it had plunked down $1.4 billion to acquire its first US onshore oil and gas assets.
ECHA Gets Moving on PFAS Restrictions
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is moving to advance the petition to restrict the use of poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs submitted in January by the environmental authorities of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Intellectual Property Protection in China: Better Than Many Think
In 2021, the new patent law came into force in China. It represents a significant strengthening of protection against patent infringements.
Johnson Matthey, BP Technology Chosen for US Biofuels Plant
Johnson Matthey and BP have won a contract to license their co-developed Fischer Tropsch CANS technology to Strategic Biofuels for that company’s Louisiana Green Fuels (LGF) project in the US state’s Caldwell Parish.
New Biotech VC Vehicle Pledges Series A Funding Aid
A new venture capital vehicle launched by a group of biotech entrepreneurs is designed to act as a seed investor as well as a drug discovery co-pilot for biotech startups that need help with Series-A financing.
Maire Tecnimont and Dimeta Explore DME from Waste
NextChem and its subsidiary MyRechemical – both part of Italy’s Maire Tecnimont group – and Dutch company Dimeta have agreed to jointly explore new opportunities to develop plants for producing renewable and recycled carbon dimethyl ether (DME) from waste.
IMCD Expands in South Africa with CPS Oil-Tech Buy
IMCD South Africa has agreed to buy CPS Chemical Oil-Tech, a Durban-based distributor that mostly serves the lubricants and fuel markets. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2023.
Archroma to Close Huntsman Textile Effects Buy on Feb. 28
Switzerland’s Archroma said it has secured all regulatory approvals required to complete the acquisition of the Textile Effects portfolio of US chemical producer Huntsman and expects to close the transaction this week, on Feb. 28.
Covestro Starts Energy-Saving Chlorine Plant in Spain
German engineering plastics producer Covestro has started up a new €200 million chlorine plant at its Tarragona complex in Spain. The company said the new facility will strengthen its 220,000 t/y European network for the key rigid-polyurethane feedstock MDI while reducing energy consumption by up to 25%.
Canada’s Biodextris Builds Biologics Facility
Canadian CDMO Biodextris plans to build a new industrial-scale vaccine and biologics facility in Laval, Quebec. The company said the cGMP biomanufacturing center and its analytical capabilities will be an asset in its development as a world-class CDMO.
GSK Prunes Ties with US Biotech Vir
GSK is pruning its cooperation with Vir Biotechnology, turning away from Covid-19 antibody and vaccine research projects while continuing to collaborate with the company on two pandemic assets and programs to treat other respiratory diseases.
Aristea Halts Clinical Trial, Dissolves Company
Safety findings in Phase 2 clinical trials have forced Aristea Therapeutics to stop developing its lead candidate RIST4721 for treating serious immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. As a consequence, Aristea’s management has decided to dissolve the company.
Pfizer CEO's Texts with EC Chief Trigger Lawsuit
Two years after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla virtually wrapped up a major order for the Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty that the US drugmaker markets with Germany’s BioNTech, the New York Times is suing the Commission in the European Court of Justice for its failure to make essential details of the negotiations public.
Genentech Builds Biologics Facility in California
Genentech, the US biotech arm of Swiss pharma giant Roche, is building a new small-batch biologics manufacturing facility at its Oceanside campus in California, USA. Groundbreaking took place on Feb. 10.
All Signals Point to ”Go” for new Plastics Firm
With merger clearance granted by India this week, nothing now stands in the way of plans by German chemical producer Lanxess and private equity investor Advent International to create a 40:60 joint venture for high performance engineering plastics with annual sales of around €300 million.
Lonza to Add Early Development Services in US
Swiss CMDO Lonza said it will expand its Early Development Services (EDS) offering into North America with a new laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, set to open in May this year.
Agilent Contracts Turner for Frederick API Project
Agilent Technologies has selected Turner Construction to build its previously announced new API plant in Frederick, Colorado, USA. The project is scheduled for completion in 2026.
Solvay Discussing RusVinyl Sale
Solvay has announced it is in “advanced” talks to sell its 50% share of Russian PVC joint venture RusVinyl to partner Sibur. Russian government authorities have given their preliminary clearance for the transaction, which remains subject to several other regulatory approvals.
Ineos Secures €3.5 Billion for “Europe’s Greenest Cracker”
Ineos has announced it has secured €3.5 billion in financing for its designated Project One, which is being realized at Lillo in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, and now expected to go on stream in 2026.
Braskem and Coolbrook in Cracker Electrification Pact
Following discussions that started last November, Brazilian polyolefins producer Braskem and Finnish technology and engineering company Coolbrook have now signed an agreement to collaborate on cracker electrification.
Veranova Completes API Expansion at Edinburgh
Macfarlan Smith, a UK-based unit of US API maker Veranova, formerly known as Johnson Matthey Health, has completed a $10 million expansion of its mid-scale active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing capabilities in Edinburgh, Scotland.
