Plants and projects

Chemical Engineering Progress, Jun 2003

SC Johnson Cogenerates to Cut Emissions in Waxdale, SC

SC Johnson (Racine, WI; www.scjbrands.com) will soon generate electricity and steam at its Waxdale, SC, facility using a cogeneration system fueled by waste methane gas from a nearby landfill. Through this "clean energy" program, the company expects to reduce Waxdale's emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 47% and cut its fossil-fuel use in half by 2005.

Air Products Infrastructure and Asia Position Help Seal Deal

The electronics division of Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (Allentown, PA; www.airproducts.com) has launched a new business unit, Electronics Equipment Solutions (EES), that delivers contamination-free-materials worldwide. The firm is in the process of installing gas-supply equipment at Samsung's Line-12 wafer manufacturing plant in Hwasung, Korea, under the auspices of Han Yang Technology (HYT; Ansan, Korea), the Asian hub for EES. (The other hubs are located in Carlsbad, CA, and Allentown, PA). HYT was awarded a $6 million contract last December to supply Samsung's Line-12 plant with systems for nitrogen trifluoride ISO Trailers, NH^sub 3^, bulk nitrous (N^sub 2^0) Y-cylinders and piping.

Akzo to Expand Electrolysis Salt Output at Hengelo, Holland Akzo Nobel (London, U.K.; www.akzonobel.com) plans to expand its 2 million metric ton/yr salt production unit at Hengelo, Netherlands, to 2.3-2.5 million metric ton/yr by the second half of 2004.

Huntsman Debottlenecks in Houston

Huntsman, Inc. (Houston, TX; www.huntsman.com) has boosted output at its Odessa, TX, facility for amorphous polyalpha-olefins (APAO) from 31,750 metric ton/yr to about 36,300 metric ton/yr, after re-purchasing its APAO license from Ube Industries (Tokyo, Japan; www.ube.com). Ube is closing its APAO production facility at Sakai, Japan, and is transferring its Asia-based APAO business to Huntsman's Houston-based APAO operations.

Lonza Breaks Ground for Biopharmaceutical Plant

Construction of Lonza Group's (Basel, Switzerland; www.lonza.com) new biopharmaceuticals manufacturing plant has commenced at in Visp, Switzerland. The $72.8 million facility will house two segregated fermentation and downstream-processing lines capable of cGMP manufacture of medicines based on microbial cell technologies. A 1,000-L line will be ready for operation by Nov. 2003 and a 15,000-L line will be operational by the first quarter of 2005.

Ciba Expands Pigments Production

Ciba Specialty Chemicals (Basel, Switzerland; www.cibasc.com) is adding a production line for the manufacture of diketo-pyrrolo-pyrrole (DPP) pigments at its facility in Monthey, Switzerland. The pigments will be used for new applications in the automotive, inks, electronics, plastics and industrial coatings sectors. Operations are slated to begin in 2004.

Sumitomo Makes More Methyl Methacrylate

Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Osaka, Japan; www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp) is stepping up production capacity of methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer and polymer in Singapore to meet sustained demands for MMA in Asia. Construction of an 80,000 ton/yr MMA plant on Jurong Island will begin later this year, with startup slated for mid-2005. Sumitomo also plans to debottle-neck 15,000 ton/yr of MMA polymer (PMMA) at that plant, increasing the capacity to 50,000 ton/yr.