and they are subject to ongoing
improvement. The company’s
consistent focus on sustainable
production processes is paying
off in China.
To ensure a reliable and sustainable
supply of iron oxide red pigments to
customers, LANXESS recently invested
in the construction of a new production
site in Ningbo, China. It uses the Ningbo
Process, which is based on patented technology. The development and start-up of
this technology, which for the first time
enables the eco-friendly production of
yellow-cast red pigments and fulfills the
very high Chinese environmental standards, went through a very intense development phase.
Chromaflo Technologies
Inaugurates New
Manufacturing Facility in
India
Chromaflo Technologies Corp.,
have announced the inauguration of
Chromaflo India’s new manufacturing facility. As the largest independent
global supplier of advanced colorants
and chemical dispersions for the paint,
coatings and thermoset plastics industries, Chromaflo is excited about this
opportunity for expansion.
“This is the first step in our endeavor to bring world-class production and
products to customers in India,” said
Scott Becker, president and CEO of
Chromaflo Technologies Corp. “The investment in people, laboratories, and machinery will allow us to offer our global
technologies throughout the India SubContinent (ISC).”
BASF Selects HPE to Build
Supercomputer for Global
Chemical Research
BASF SE and Hewlett Packard Enterprise
will collaborate to develop one of the
world’s largest supercomputers for industrial chemical research at BASF’s
Ludwigshafen headquarters. Based on the
latest generation of HPE Apollo 6000 systems, the new supercomputer will drive
the digitalization of BASF’s research.
The new system will make it pos-
sible to answer complex questions
and reduce the time required to obtain
results from several months to days
across all research areas. As part of
BASF’s digitalization strategy, the com-
pany plans to significantly expand its
capabilities to run virtual experiments
with the supercomputer. It will help
BASF reduce time to market and costs
by, for example, simulating processes
on catalyst surfaces more precisely or
accelerating the design of new polymers
with pre-defined properties.
With the help of Intel Xeon processors, high-bandwidth, low-latency Intel
Omni-Path Fabric and HPE management software, the supercomputer acts
as a single system with an effective performance of more than 1 Petaflop (1
Petaflop equals one quadrillion floating
point operations per second). With this
system architecture, a multitude of nodes
can work simultaneously on highly complex tasks, dramatically reducing the processing time.
“Customers are always looking for
systems that deliver the best performance at the best total cost of ownership,” said Barry Davis, general manager,
Accelerated Workload Group, Intel.
“Intel Omni-Path Architecture is specifically designed to deliver outstanding
performance while scaling cost-effectively from entry-level high performance
computing clusters to larger clusters
with 10,000 nodes or more – offering a
significant advantage on both fronts.”
The new supercomputer will consist
of several hundred computer nodes and
will also leverage HPE Apollo Systems to
give customers simplified administration
efficiencies and flexibility to match their
solutions to the workload.
Oxea Builds Second
Propanol Unit
Oxea has started the construction of
a new world-scale propanol unit at
its production site at Bay City, Texas.
The new unit “Propanol 2” is scheduled to come on stream in 2018. Once
commissioned, it will add a capacity
of 100,000 mt/year of propanol and
40,000 mt/year of propionaldehyde.
Propanol is used to manufacture prod-
ucts mainly ending up in printing inks,
“This project reflects our long-term
selective growth strategy. It helps us re-
inforce our strong position as the larg-
est producer of propanol worldwide.
Propanol 2 will provide Oxea with op-
portunities for further expansion into
profitable growth areas,” commented
Purnendu Rai, EVP global sales and
Oxo-Intermediates.
As Oxea is finalizing the detailed
engineering phase, construction of the
new plant has commenced. Site preparation, including demolition of existing foundations from previously retired
equipment, and the construction of temporary project facilities has been completed. Current activities are focused on
starting the execution of civil construction and completing the bid processes
for the remaining construction work,
primarily mechanical, and instrumentation and electrical.
“This capacity increase is another
excellent example of our strong commitment to supporting our customers
with sufficient and reliable supplies,”
stated Oxea’s CEO, Salim Al Huthaili.
“To continue as a profitable and sustainable company, we are significantly
investing in our production platforms
and continuously seeking opportunities
to differentiate ourselves. We aim for
further expansion of our portfolio and
growth in volumes over the coming period,” he added.
Oxea has awarded the construction
management contract for the Propanol
2 project to Jacobs Engineering Group,
Inc., one of the world’s largest and most
diverse providers of full-spectrum technical, professional and construction services
for the industry. Jacobs’ services include
delivering pre-construction planning and
construction management services.
“We are delighted to work with Oxea
on this strategically important project,”
said Jacobs SVP Downstream, Mark Bello.
“Our experience and lessons learned while
executing similar U.S. Gulf Coast construction projects will contribute to the
success of this important expansion.” CW
