Chemical
Industry News Editor Christa Semko Every two weeks, Christa will
bring you the latest chemical industry news from around the world. If you have a
press release that you'd like to share with us, please mail it to us through our online
contact form here.
The Environmental Protection Agency has presented a timeline for the cleanup of dioxin contamination near a Dow Chemical Co. plant in Michigan. Cleanup is set to begin this fall. Dioxin has contaminated a 50-mile-long watershed including the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and part of Lake Huron’s SaginawBay.
Agreement Reached
Blackwater New Orleans, LLC has reached an agreement with an international petrochemical marketing company for the storage and handling of caustic soda at its Westwego, Louisiana facility. The contract will commence on August 1 and is expected to add approximately $500,000 in annual net revenues.
New Facility
Aker Solutions has opened its new 90,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. The new facility will allow the company to capitalize on market demand for fabrication of its proprietary equipment for acid plants as it more than doubles its production capacity.
Safety Awards
Five Flint Hills Resources refining and chemical sites have earned safe work awards for their performance in 2008 from the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. The Pine Bend, Minnesota refinery; Corpus Christi, Texas refining complex; North Pole, Alaska refinery; and the Port Arthur, Texas chemical plant each earned the Meritorious Safety Performance Award. The Pine Bend and North Pole refineries and the Corpus Christi complex also earned the Gold Award and two Achievement Awards. The Marysville, Michigan chemical plant earned an Achievement Award.
Exploration
The Dow Chemical Company and Gazprom Marketing and Trading Limited have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop and implement greenhouse gas reduction projects on a global basis. Both companies will work together to identify projects that could cumulatively reduce millions of tons of CO2 emissions through the implementation of Dow technologies and other cooperative efforts.
BASF says a breakdown at its headquarters in western Germany sent 10 tons of HPN spewing into the River Rhine. The leak has been stopped and poses no danger to humans or the environment. Direct contact with HPN can be harmful to a person’s eyes, but the company said the compound was biodegradable and would be so diluted by the water that it posed no risk to humans or nature. The cause of the leak is unknown.
Patent Case
The High Court of Mumbai has ordered Kiri Dyes & Chemicals Ltd. to stop selling a black dye until it can determine whether the product infringes on a Huntsman Corp. patent. Huntsman’s textile effects division has claimed the product violates its Indian patent on Novacron Super Black G dye and contends it has found the Kiri product at several textile mills in Asian countries.
Plans Finalized
Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company finalized the awarding plan for engineering, procurement and construction contracts that constitute the thirteen different process packages of the Jubail, Saudi Arabia joint venture refinery. The 400,000 barrel/day full-conversion refinery is expected to be operational by the second half of 2013. The full-conversion refinery will maximize production of diesel and jet fuels while also producing 700,000 tons/year of paraxylene, 140,000 tons/year of benzene and 200,000 tons/year of polymer-grade propylene.
