In a sign that the administration of US president Joe Biden will be tougher on environmental offenses than that of former president Donald Trump, three companies belonging to petrochemicals producer LyondellBasell have received fines for improper operation, maintenance and monitoring of flares that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said used too much steam.
Following trials earlier this year of its proprietary technology for advanced recycling – also referred to as chemical recycling – ExxonMobil has now announced its intention to build a large-scale plant in Baytown, Texas, USA.
US chemical producer Milliken has completed the acquisition of compatriot Encapsys from the Cypress Performance Group (CPG), a holding company formed by Sherman Capital Holdings in the merger of Encapsys with IPS Corporation.
Haldor Topsoe, one of the largest suppliers of methanol (MeOH) catalysts and technology, has accepted HTE for testing its methanol (MeOH) catalysts in a p high throughput system under industrially relevant operating conditions.
Diverse developments taking place simultaneously in Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, especially in the US, are making it difficult for the average market watcher – and anti-vaccine enthusiasts – to keep up. While the past ten days have seen some concrete progress on boosters, following weeks of discussion, uncertainty lingers on some topics.
Germany’s Merck has opened its second production facility for viral vectors at Carlsbad, California, a move the company said significantly expands its global CDMO footprint. The new €100 million plant will more than double the company’s existing capacity to support large-scale commercial and industrial manufacturing for viral gene therapy.
Perstorp has appointed Patrice Pinsard as EVP Strategic Markets & Innovation, effective Oct. 18, 2021.
US specialty chemicals company Ingevity has announced plans to hike capacity for caprolactone monomer at its facility in Warrington, UK. The increase will be achieved through a series of optimization projects over the next 12 months that will expand Ingevity’s global monomer capacity by more than 20%.
Industrial gases producer Air Products has announced its largest-ever investment in the US, a $4.5 billion clean energy complex in the state of Louisiana’s Ascension Parish. The company will build, own and operate the mammoth facility expected to go on stream in 2026, producing more than 750 million standard cubic feet (22.5 million cubic meters) per day of “blue” hydrogen and blue ammonia.
US-based Charles River Laboratories International on Oct. 12 completed the divestment of its gene therapy CDMO site in Sweden and its research models and services operations in Japan. The site in Matfors, Sweden, was sold to an unnamed private investor group for about $52 million cash, with potential contingent payments of up to an additional $25 million, subject to certain adjustments.
Leading global chemical companies and the World Economic Forum (WEF) have announced that they are entering an agreement to formalize the Low-Carbon Emitting Technologies (LCET) initiative into a stand-alone entity by the end of 2023, to share early-stage risks and co-invest in developing and upscaling low-carbon emitting technologies.
Bayer’s pharmaceuticals division is spending more than €400 million to expand its production facilities for contraceptives in low and middle-income countries, in partnership with international organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund and the United States Agency for International Development.
Haldor Topsoe is partnering Dow to accelerate development of chemical recycling technology that converts hard-to-recycle waste plastics into pyrolysis oil feedstock. The Danish group will support the design and engineering of a 10,000 t/y market-development, or pilot, unit to be built at Dow’s site in Terneuzen, the Netherlands.
As part of a new strategic partnership, energy giant BP will provide German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess with “green” cyclohexane to feed its high-tech plastics production at Antwerp, Belgium.
Spanish energy and petrochemicals group Repsol is the latest of its industry peers to announce an acceleration of its transition to net zero emissions by 2050.
Czech company Orlen Unipetrol, part of Poland’s refining and petrochemicals group PKN Orlen, has announced plans to expand its steam cracker at Litvinov by adding an eleventh furnace. The project costing about 700 million Czech koruna (about €27 million) will expand ethylene output at the site to 585,000 t/y from 545,000 t/y.
Virtual specialty materials manufacturer Aceto has acquired A&C Bio Buffer, a GMP manufacturer of custom buffer and chemical blend products used to produce biopharmaceuticals. Financial terms were not disclosed.
AstraZeneca’s rare diseases unit Alexion has taken full control of Caelum Biosciences, gaining access to another rare disease drug, CAEL-101, which is a potential treatment for light chain amyloidosis (AL) that has been granted Fast Track status by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
French chemical producer Arkema has announced it will build a new plant for bio-based polyamide 11 powder at Changsu, China, with start-up planned for 2023. The investment runs parallel to the company’s €350 million mega project taking shape on Singapore’s Jurong Island, the latter encompassing both a PA resins unit and a plant to produce its feedstock, 11-aminoundecanoic acid.
CureVac is withdrawing its first-generation Covid-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, from the current approval process with the European Medicines Agency. In a statement, the German biotech said the EMA had made it clear that there was no chance of the shot being approved before the second quarter of 2022. By this time, it expects candidates from the second-generation vaccine program it is pursuing with UK drugmaker GlaxoSmitKline (GSK) to have progressed to late-stage clinical development.
ExxonMobil has signed an Expression of Interest for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) of CO2 emissions from its Fife ethylene plant in Scotland. The move sees the US energy and petrochemicals giant increase its participation in the proposed Acorn CCS project, which could potentially store more than 20 million t/y of CO2 by the mid-2030s.
BASF and Sanyo Chemical Industries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop and produce sustainable polyurethane dispersions (PUDs). The companies said they aim to jointly develop and manufacture innovative products with strong sustainability contribution. Any newly developed technologies and products will have worldwide market access through their global production footprint.
US pharma giant Merck & Co has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of its oral antiviral drug molnupiravir, developed together with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The New Jersey-based pharma and the Florida-headquartered biotech are positioning the pill as a preventative therapy, rather than as a therapeutic, the latter a path other industry heavyweights are taking.
Danish biotech Novozymes has linked up with US-based Anuvia Plant Nutrients to develop a range of combined biotechnologies to reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers in commercial agriculture. As a first step, the companies will combine Novozymes’ phosphate solubilizing microbial solutions with Anuvia’s bio-based fertilizer products to enhance macronutrient efficiency with a focus on phosphate.
US chemical giant Dow is pressing ahead with several projects aimed at delivering $3 billion in underlying EBITDA growth as it progresses toward carbon neutrality and circularity. Along with its just announced net-zero carbon emissions ethylene and derivatives complex in Canada, the Midland, Michigan-based group will launch a line of circular plastic solutions and expand its chemical recycling capability.
Boehringer Ingelheim has inaugurated its Large Scale Cell Culture (LSCC) biopharmaceutical plant at Vienna, Austria. Built over a period of six years at a cost of more than €700 million, the German drugmaker said this is the single largest investment in its history.
Huntsman has formed a joint venture with South Korean polyols producer KPX Chemical. The jv, named KPX Huntsman Polyurethanes Automotive, will develop and produce polyurethane systems for South Korean automakers from KPX's plant in Ulsan. Operations are expected to start by the end of October.
Dow has announced plans to build what it regards as the world’s first net-zero carbon emissions ethylene and derivatives complex at its Fort Saskatchewan site in Alberta, Canada. The project, to go on onstream by 2030, will add roughly 1.8 million t/y of ethylene capacity and 3.2 million t/y of PE and ethylene derivatives.
Bayer has won its first case in four US lawsuits charging that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide caused a person’s cancer. A jury in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 5 rejected a mother’s charge that her spraying Roundup on the family’s property exposed her son to the pesticide and caused him to develop Burkitt’s lymphoma – a form of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
Finnish chemicals company Kemira is evaluating a possible closure of its site in Pierre-Bénite, near Lyon in France. The site, which employs 13 people, produces ferric chloride and different grades of polyaluminium chloride, and was part of Kemira’s acquisition of Arkema’s water treatment business in 2007.
Evonik has decided to sell its Lülsdorf site, south of Cologne, Germany, in the medium term. The company said detailed plans for the sale will be finalized by next spring. The goal is to sell the entire site to a new owner, though Evonik said it will consider selling parts of the businesses to “various interested parties.” Employee representatives have been notified of the plans.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended administering GlaxoSmithKline’s 33-year-old malaria vaccine to children across Africa in the hope of stalling the spread of the mosquito-borne disease. Despite a preceding positive recommendation the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2015, the vaccine still is not in widespread use.
Mitsubishi Gas Chemical has announced plans to expand capacity for meta-xylenediamine (MXDA) in the Netherlands. The Japanese group said the expansion will meet growth in the European epoxy, polyamide and isocyanate markets.
Epsilyte Holdings, a leading North American producer of advanced materials used in construction, packaging and safety equipment, has acquired StyroChem, a Canadian expandable polystyrene (EPS) manufacturer, from PMC Capital Partners, which has owned the business since August 2019. Financial terms were not disclosed.
AstraZeneca has provided the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with encouraging study evidence that its antiviral cocktail candidate AZD7442 can prevent Covid-19 infections in vulnerable people, such as those who are unlikely to respond well to vaccines. This followed disappointing results from an earlier study.
