Process Engineering articles from March 2001

Process Engineering archives from March 2001

Resins to be cheerful.
March 1, 2001... Atofina's resins division, Cray Valley, has bought the photocure resins division of Croda International for an undisclosed sum. The business operates three production sites, in Liverpool, Belvedere and Beranang, Malaysia.

Best year ever for Akzo Nobel.
March 1, 2001... Sales of [epsilon]14 billion, up 14 per cent, and operating income up 16 per cent at [epsilon]1.6 billion made 2000 a record year for Akzo Nobel. The pharmaceutical division's 30 per cent growth in income was 'spectacular,' comments chairman...

CIA looks forward to climate deal...
March 1, 2001... The Chemical Industries Association is expecting to sign a climate change agreement with the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in the 'near future', it says. Ten sectors have already signed agreements: the CIA's 'slightly...

...while steel signs.
March 1, 2001... The UK Steel Association's members have agreed to cut its annual energy use by 11.5 per cent by 2010, equating to an 18 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Plant closures as Ineos cuts back after ICI acquisition.
March 1, 2001... Over a third of the workforce at Ineos Chlor's UK chlor-alkali operation are to lose their jobs as the company cuts back the business, which it bought from ICI late last year. The job cuts, totalling 618, will be completed by next June. ...

Kvaerner returns to profitability.
March 1, 2001... Two years of 'radical surgery' has culminated in a return to profitability for Anglo-Norwegian contractor Kvaerner, says chief executive Kjell Almskog. The year 2000 saw the company post a pretax profit of NKr5l3million, compared with a...

ABB unveils 'transformation' to prioritise customers.
March 1, 2001... Engineering giant ABB is to take on a 'customer-centric' organisation to boost sales across its product range. Announcing his company's year 2000 results, chief executive Jurgen Centerman said the new structure would lead to 'substantial growth...

GlaxoSmithKline focuses on improving R&D productivity and on new launches.
March 1, 2001... The newly-formed largest pharmaceutical firm in the world is reorganising its research and development organisation to ensure that it discovers and launches new medicines faster than its competitors. The changes aim to capture the benefits of...

Rhodia sells A&W surfactants.
March 1, 2001... Family-owned US chemicals producer Huntsman has bought Albright & Wilson's European surfactants business from Rhodia for around $200million. The two firms expect to work together to develop the business, especially in the UK. A&W, which...

BASF considers non-core flotations.
March 1, 2001... German chemicals behemoth BASF is considering the sale of some of its non-core businesses, both to concentrate on its strengths and to return value to shareholders. The firm, which completed the sale of its pharmaceuticals division, Knoll, to...

BP and Nova focus on PE catalysts.
March 1, 2001... BP Chemicals is to join forces with Canadian olefin producer Nova Chemicals to commercialise Nova's high-activity catalysts for polyethylene production. The catalysts will be incorporated into BP's Innovene gas-phase PE process. The...

Engineering and technology board.
March 1, 2001... Science minister Lord Sainsbury has announced the formation of an Engineering and Technology Board to help engineers tailor and market their skills. 'We must make sure that all our young scientists and engineers have the chance to gain...

Better monitoring for operators.
March 1, 2001... The Environment Agency's new operator monitoring assessment (OMA) scheme places a 'greater reliance on self-monitoring,' it says. The agency is strengthening its auditing procedures to maintain confidence in the quality of monitoring, and to...

Ineos makes Dow purchase.
March 1, 2001... Ineos has bought Dow Chemical's global ethanolamine and Gas/Spec businesses, which were sold as part of the US firm's merger with Union Carbide. The financial details were not disclosed.

Shell sells.
March 1, 2001... Shell's French division has sold epoxy and urethane resins business Raigi to its management. The business has a turnover of around $10million per year, and is based near Paris.

UK investment.
March 1, 2001... Mitsubishi Electric has committed itself to an investment of [pound]20million to strengthen its UK operations. The Hatfield site will benefit from increased activities in e-business and a fast turn around of supply products. The decision...

Siemens' choice.
March 1, 2001... Dickinson Controls has been sold by its parent company, Brunel Holdings, to Siemens for [pound]9.3million, subject to Brunel shareholder approval. A buyer was sought after who would provide the best fit for cradle-to-grave installation of...

Weir orders up.
March 1, 2001... The Weir Process Group has been awarded contracts worth around [pound]9million to supply pumping equipment to the Bandar Imam petrochemical special economic zone in Iran. The main order includes a package of API process pumps for the Bouali...

Fine for Ascot.
March 1, 2001... A new small scale manufacturing unit has been commissioned at Ascot Fine Chemicals, worth approximately [pound]3million. The investment is the final phase of a cGMP building at the Mirfield site in West Yorkshire. The unit will produce 25-40)...

Shell profits soar.
March 1, 2001... The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies has posted a record annual profit for the year 2000 of $13.1billion ([pound]9.04billion), up 85 per cent from 1999. The significant increase in profit has been attributed to the rise in oil prices in...

BPD inspires drug company acquisition.
March 1, 2001... Bradford Particle Design (BPD) has been acquired by Inhale Therapeutic Systems following an offer made to acquire all the outstanding share capital for 3.75 million newly issued Inhale common shares and approximately $20million in cash. BPD, a...

ABB drives ahead with partners and alliances.
March 1, 2001... Since last year's introduction of its Drives Alliance and Motor Services Partners initiatives, ABB Automation claims its market share of the UK's ac drives market will reach 20 per cent this year. This is estimated at eight points higher than...

MBO spins out new company.
March 1, 2001... A management buy-out at centrifuge specialist Krauss-Maffei Verfalirenstechnik in Munich has led to the formation of the new UK company Krauss-Maffei Process Technology (UK). Warrington-based K-M Process Technology is a 'solution-provider'...

CIA concern over chemistry.
March 1, 2001... The UK Chemical Industries Association has joined with its European umbrella organisation to express its concern over the chemicals policy White Paper. What concerns me most,' says Director General Elliot Finer, 'is that the case for imposing...

Common ground lacking over EC chemicals paper.
March 1, 2001... Politicians, environmentalists and the chemical industry are at odds over the EC's chemicals policy White Paper. The European Chemical Industry Council has expressed reservations over the European Commission's proposed chemical policy. The...

Walking the tightrope to ensure safety and profits.
March 1, 2001... 'The ensuing slanging match between environmentalists and the industry has been one of the most colourful in memory' The European Commission has an unenviable task in compiling its new White Paper on chemicals policy (see News Analysis,...

What goes up must come down.
March 1, 2001... Continuing our look at the estimated costs of removing I redundant equipment from site, we turn our attention this month to vessels, heat exchangers and evaporators. Just to remind you about the background to this data, in our January...

Ion traps close on waste metals.
March 1, 2001... Cage-shaped compounds developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico could soon find uses in waste treatment and disposal, and water purification. The compounds, which have ion exchange properties, are selective...

Enzyme boost for BASF.
March 1, 2001... Bacteria which live on vegetable oils are the key to a new process to make vitamin B2 at BASF. The process, resulting from a collaboration with the University of Salamanca, is 20 per cent more efficient than the German giant's current...

Cash for UK science.
March 1, 2001... Around [pound]1billion of government funding is to be distributed to universities in the UK, in an ongoing attempt to renew the science infrastructure. The funding, which represents a partnership with the Wellcome Trust, will be distributed...

Beads are key to sugar drugs.
March 1, 2001... Researchers from Wayne State University are hoping that their research on processing molecules derived from sugars could lead to a new generation of drugs. Oligosaccharides -- sugars built up from combinations of five- and six-membered rings --...

Simplicity in superconductors.
March 1, 2001... Magnesium diboride, a simple and readily available salt, could be the basis for affordable superconductors, according to scientists at Aoyama-Gakuin University in Japan. The salt becomes superconducting at a surprisingly warm -234[degrees]C,...

Steel defies harsh peat.
March 1, 2001... Irish peat producer, Bard Na Mona, has installed a range of stainless steel handling equipment from Cromweld. The company produces 4.5million tonnes of peat annually for industrial and domestic use. The peat has a silica content of 5 per cent...

PVC levels for windows.
March 1, 2001... Capacitance units from Siemens Milltronics have found an unusal application at the headquaters of Anglian Windows. PVC powder is the main ingredient in the production of energy efficient windows and doorframes. Measuring levels of the powder...

Mixing at British Ceramic Tile.
March 1, 2001... British Ceramic Tiles (BCT) has installed four jet mixers from Ytron at its [pound]30million tile works in Newton Abbot, Devon. One of the mixers is being used to disperse fine particles into a slurry, a by-product of a spray drying stage in...

De-aerators create savings.
March 1, 2001... The Energy Centre is the primary source of superheated steam for ICI's own electricity generators at its Teesside works in Billing ham as well as supplying steam for sterilisation in the manufacture of fertilisers and other chemicals. Gestra, a...

Chemical plants steam ahead.
March 1, 2001... Brunner Mond, a manufacturer of alkaline chemicals for the glass, detergent and chemical industries, has integrated a process control and operation system across its two Cheshire plants. TWO generations of Yokogawa's Centum system have been...

Responsible Care Certification "Convince me it's worthwhile".
March 1, 2001... Stuart Aaron, CIA Responsible Care Manager, and Mike Welch, CIA management systems consultant, answer the key questions for firms in the petrochemical sector Responsible Care is the worldwide commitment by the chemical industry to...

Putting a new perspective on POWDER PROPERTIES.
March 1, 2001... Reg Freeman outlines some of the key issues in powder processing and discusses the impact of a new instrument that measures flow properties of powders Much has been written about the theoretical aspects relating to powder behaviour, and...

Taking a spin through CENTRIFUGES.
March 1, 2001... As an intensified separation technique, centrifugation has many advantages. But selecting the right centrifuge for a specific duty requires some basic knowledge of the machines themselves. Nigel Day spins through the options, while overleaf we...

Modular disc design brings benefits.
March 1, 2001... Designed for the clarification of wine, fruit and vegetable juice, beer and other beverages, the SG40 disc bowl centrifuge from Westfalia Separator features a modular design that is said to make the clarifiers less expensive to manufacture and...

The cream of the crop?
March 1, 2001... Westfalia Separator has extended its range of MSE skimming separators to include a high capacity machine for use in large dairies. The MSE 400 milk separator uses the Westfalia 'soft-stream' process to reduce shearing forces and skim the...

Three out of one package.
March 1, 2001... Corus Packaging Plus, the former British Steel Tin Plate company, has installed a Flottweg Tricanter system at its Llanelli steel works in south Wales for the reprocessing of biodegradable rolling mill oils. The Trostre Works cold rolls...

System engineered for protection.
March 1, 2001... Global crop protection company Zeneca Agrochemicals, part of AstraZeneca, has installed three Krauss-Maffei turnkey centrifuge systems at its Grangemouth site. Each system consists of a peeler centrifuge, a table feeder, a vacuum plate dryer,...

Pushing the service side.
March 1, 2001... A recent installation by Krauss-Maffei of a pusher centrifuge at East Lancashire Chemical's soda production site in Manchester was sealed because of the company's 'technical back-up and serious expertise in centrifuge technology', according to...

More milk at Marshfield.
March 1, 2001... The installation and commissioning of a new 5000 I/h Tetra Alex homogeniser at the Unigate Dairy Crest dairy in Marshfield, South Wales, has brought an end to a redevelopment programme that has greatly increased production capacity and...

Silverson shakes up milk mixing.
March 1, 2001... Silverson Machines has upgraded its equipment at the Milk Marque's Product Development Centre Consultancy to include a Flashblend mixer. The centre, in Northwich, Cheshire, is a permanent working exhibition which allows food and beverage...

Singatrol's cool fruit.
March 1, 2001... When a shipment of star fruit from Malaysia arrived already ripe, Signatrol's SL 150 data logger proved invaluable. The device traced the problem to the waiting period before the last leg of the fruit's journey, when its temperature rose above...

Labels for Logopak.
March 1, 2001... With meat off the menu, Marlow Foods, one of the country's leading producers of the meat substitute Quorn, is expanding its production lines. Logopak is supplying four print and apply labelling systems, two traded unit labellers and a pallet...

Packaging poultry.
March 1, 2001... Premier Fresh Foods has embraced the convenience food market with whole heartedness. In doing so, the company needed to hire a semi-automatic PA2016 rotary heat-sealing system from Packaging Automation. Two new chicken dishes are packaged in a...

Nice and cheesy does it.
March 1, 2001... Colton Bassett Dairy's Stilton is world-famous, but conditions at its storage facility near Nottingham have been causing problems. An over-dry atmosphere in spring and summer is leading to a lack of the blue veining that makes the cheese look...

Cracking the crumbling.
March 1, 2001... Dew-Lay, an English territorial cheesemaker based in Garstang, Lancashire, is currently facing the familiar problems of the food industry, as it continues to kit out its new dairy, a purpose-built unit which it moved into in 1997. The company's...

Feeding system to a tea.
March 1, 2001... Sandra Tea & Coffee, who package private label tea and coffee, has improved production by reducing dust and installing new process feeding equipment from Spiraflow. The manual transfer of tea has been replaced by three CHT10 process feeders,...

Pudding, easy as pie.
March 1, 2001... Procordia Foods' task of satisfying Sweden's hunger for rice pudding-based desserts is being assisted by Tetra Pak, which has suppied, installed and commissioned a Desserto line at the company's plant in Orebro. The line is being used to...

Keeping track of process HUMIDITY.
March 1, 2001... Humidity is an important parameter in many areas of food production, but monitoring it can be difficult. Mike Spear reports on a new system that offers productivity and cost benefits For a company whose claim to fame is that it 'bakes a...

Ale and Hearty.
March 1, 2001... Malt and barley roasting depends on traditional skills which are dying out. Process and control specialists are joining forces with the brewing industry, using modern techniques and technologies to develop control systems for the process. ...

Membrane filtration in Brewing and Distilling.
March 1, 2001... Bob Skelton and Kamla Jevons discuss the benefits of membrane technology with particular reference to product quality in the brewing and distilling industries Membrane technology has been used in the brewing and distilling industries for...