door to our new coatings plant,
is a key component to further
strengthen our local footprint
and to respond to our customers
even quicker. It will be a world-class resin
and e-coat plant using the latest production technology for the manufacturing of
advanced coatings,” said Peter Fischer,
senior vice president, Coatings Solutions
Asia Pacific, BASF.
Porta Hnos S.A. Signs
Agreement to Become
Exclusive Licensee of
Gevo’s GIFT Technology
Gevo, Inc., the world’s only commercial
producer of renewable isobutanol, announced that Porta Hnos S.A. has signed
a letter of intent to become the exclusive
licensee of GIFT in Argentina to produce
renewable isobutanol.
“Isobutanol’s versatility and hy-drocarbon-like properties make it an
ideal renewable fuel and chemical for
Argentina and Gevo’s GIFT technology is
the most efficient way to produce it,” said
Fernando Porta, vice president of Porta.
“Porta is already a leading ethanol producer in Argentina and we would like to
expand our footprint to other high-value
renewable alcohols such as isobutanol.”
BASF Opens Global R&D
Center in Mumbai, India
BASF SE inaugurated a new global
Research and Development (R&D)
Center at its Thane site in Navi Mumbai,
India, focusing on organic synthesis, advanced process and formulation research,
discovery chemistry for modern agricultural solutions, and molecular modelling.
With an initial investment of € 2 million, this new facility has been set up by
BASF under its group Company, BASF
Chemicals India Pvt Ltd. The new R&D
facilities will accommodate more than 60
scientists in the first phase.
“With our R&D Center in Navi
Mumbai we have taken a significant
step closer to BASF’s globalization goal
in R&D. By 2020, we plan to conduct
50% of our research activities outside of
Europe – one quarter in Asia Pacific,” said
Dr. Harald Lauke, President, Biological
& Effect Systems Research at BASF.
“By establishing a global research
presence in Mumbai, we will be able to
work directly with a wide range of sci-
entific talents in India and take steps
towards our strategic goal to innovate
from Asia Pacific, for Asia Pacific and the
world. We are also currently evaluating
further investment options into R&D in
Asia Pacific, including India.”
“Market-driven research and devel-
opment is the cornerstone of BASF’s
global ‘We Create Chemistry’ strategy
and we are therefore significantly ex-
panding our R&D network in Asia
Pacific. With our unique combination
of chemistry, application know-how
and the new and improved R&D set-
up, we are well positioned to work even
more closely with our customers across
the region and globally, and help them
solve their challenges and develop sus-
tainable solutions,” said Gops Pillay,
President, ASEAN and South and East
Asia, and South & East Asia, ASEAN,
and Australia/New Zealand, BASF.
BASF recently established an
Agronomical Research and Development
Field Station in Pune, near Mumbai, for
its agricultural business.
“India is a core market for BASF with
a strong scientific community. By enhancing our local R&D presence, together we
can realize advances which go beyond
the scope of today’s solutions,” said Dr.
Raman Ramachandran, Head South Asia,
Chairman, BASF Companies in India.
In 2013, BASF continued the world-
wide expansion of its research and de-
velopment centers, especially in Asia and
North America. With an investment of
€ 1. 8 billion in R&D, a highly talented
workforce of approximately 10,650 em-
ployees worldwide, and a research pipe-
line of 3,000 projects globally, BASF is
committed to offering chemistry-based
solutions for almost all sectors of the
industry. BASF filed around 1,300 new
patents worldwide in 2013. In India,
BASF maintains a strong R&D pres-
ence through its sites in Mangalore and
Mumbai, which are part of a global
Technology Platform. Strategically lo-
cated to offer close proximity to key
production assets and customers, these
facilities support close collaboration
between research, development and busi-
ness teams on site.
Elevance Selects
URS Corporation for
Engineering, Procurement
and Construction Services
Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., a high-growth specialty chemicals company, announced it has selected URS Corporation
to provide engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) services for its second
world-scale biorefinery in Natchez, Miss.,
ensuring the company remains on track to
meet customer forecasts for its Inherent renewable building blocks in 2016. “URS is
a natural partner for us, and we’re looking
forward to working together to advance
our second biorefinery,” said Elevance CEO
K’Lynne Johnson. “Just as our Inherent
renewable building blocks are a breakthrough category of novel products that
provide innovative solutions to multiple
industries, URS brings an innovative approach to getting the job done.” Under the
contract, URS’ scope of work involves converting Elevance’s existing biodiesel plant
into a new biorefinery. “With our presence
in Baton Rouge, near the site of the new
biorefinery, URS is able to provide an EPC
solution to Elevance that features a local,
experienced team and proven construction delivery,” said Ken Martinez, URS Vice
President and General Manager, Process
Engineering. “URS’ expertise supporting
clients worldwide with a variety of systems
and processes makes us an ideal partner
for Elevance’s latest biorefinery project.”
Elevance is the only specialty chemicals
company that will have two world-scale
biorefineries in operation by 2016. The
Natchez project will be the second biorefinery based on Elevance’s proprietary metathesis technology. Commercial production is
already underway at the company’s first
biorefinery, a 180,000 MT joint venture
with Wilmar International Limited located
in Gresik, Indonesia. The commercial-scale
manufacturing facility in Natchez will produce novel specialty chemicals, including
multifunctional esters such as 9-decenoic
methyl ester; a unique distribution of bio-based alpha and internal olefins including decene; and a premium mixture of
oleochemicals. It will have a capacity of
