feedstocks (waste CO2 and large volume shale gas) could allow U.S. provid-ers to become global low-cost leaders
in chemical intermediates and vastly reduce dependencies on crude oil markets.
The company estimated that cost savings could be as large as 20-40 percent
compared to today’s technologies, but
will depend on the ultimate performance
of key techno-economic variables that
will be determined as part of the DOE
project. Additional potential benefits of
Novomer’s process include:
• Increased energy productivity of chemical manufacturing by 30-70 percent
• Reduce CO2 footprint by 40-110 percent (depending on target chemical)
• Energy savings of more than 20 trillion
BTUs per year within 10 years.
• Total sequestration of waste gases with
only moderate temperature requirements
ALTANA Acquires Rheology
Business of Rockwood
Holdings
ALTANA has completed the acquisition
of the rheology business of Rockwood
Holdings, Inc. With the acquisition
ALTANA’s sales are expected to reach ap-proximatley €1.9 billion per year.
ALTANA acquired the rheology
business of Rockwood’s Performance
Additives segment for a purchase price of
$635 million. The acquired business segment is one of the world’s leading suppliers of rheology additives that optimize
the flow characteristics of various materials. Rheology additives are used, among
other things, in coatings, construction
materials, and personal care products.
They can, for example, ensure that coatings have the right viscosity and that they
can be applied without forming droplets
or bubbles.
As a result of the acquisition the
number of the ALTANA Group’s employees increased from 350 to 5,700.
In addition to the administration department in Austin, Texas, four new
production sites have been taken over:
Gonzales, Texas, Louisville, Kentucky,
Widnes, UK and Moosburg, Germany.
ALTANA will integrate the acquired
rheology business into its B YK Additives
& Instruments division.
Solvay to Acquire U.S.-
Based Chemlogics
Solvay has signed an agreement to acquire privately-held Chemlogics for a
total cash consideration of $1.345 billion. According to the company, adding the U.S.-based company to Solvay’s
Novecare business unit will create a
leader with an extensive portfolio of
tailored chemical solutions for the fast-growing oil and gas market, serving
stimulation, cementing, production and
water management applications.
Oman Oil Company
Acquires Oxea from Advent
International
Advent International has sold Oxea,
one of the largest global manufactur-
ers of Oxo chemicals to the Oman Oil
Company (OOC), a commercial compa-
ny wholly owned by the Government of
the Sultanate of Oman
The acquisition is subject to anti-
trust approvals and satisfaction of other
conditions. The purchase price was not
disclosed. With the acquisition of Oxea,
OOC aims to become a vertically in-
tegrated global chemical leader in the
downstream industry.
With 1.3 million tons of Oxo chemicals and derivatives each year, Oxea generated sales of approximately €1.5 billion
in 2012. The company was formed by
merging two separate business units,
which Advent acquired in 2007 from
Celanese and Degussa (now Evonik).
Celanese Simplifying its
Brand Architecture
Celanese has announced plan to simplify brand architecture to capture in a
single brand the full suite of Celanese
technology, resources, products and
solutions. This change moves Celanese
toward achieving its vision of becoming the first-choice chemistry solution
source for its customers.
“Our vision represents Celanese’s
depth and breadth of industry and chem-
istry knowledge, the capabilities to inno-
vate for our customers, the dedication
to creating value, and a commitment
to partnerships to help our customers
succeed,” said Mark Rohr, chairman
and chief executive officer. “We
believe the phrase that best de-
scribes Celanese is ‘The chemis-
try inside innovation’.”
BASF Receives Frost &
Sullivan Award for Resins
for Protective Coatings
BASF has received the 2013 Product Line
Strategy Leadership Award from Frost &
Sullivan based on a recent analysis of the
European resins for protective coatings
market. The award recognizes the extent
to which the product line meets customer
base demands, the overall impact it has
in terms of customer value as well as increased market share.
BASF’s strategic acquisitions im-
proved its coating raw materials portfo-
lio and gave it access to many important
technologies. “Due to our combined
know-how in the field of resins, pigments
and additives, we are able to support our
customers in formulation and processes,”
said Ulf Neidlein, vice president busi-
ness management resins and additives,
Europe. “This allows us to be seen as a
provider of complete coatings solutions
rather than pure raw-material chemistry.”
BASF’s current approach to product
portfolio development is based on mar-
ket trends. “The market continues to
shift away from using high-solvent coat-
ings, and BASF is leading this conversion
by replacing alkyds with acrylic disper-
sions,” said Frost & Sullivan industry
analyst Roland Heinze. “The company
also looks to replace other conventional
technologies to the greatest extent pos-
sible with more sustainable ones in order
to grow faster than the market.”
The company’s extensive portfolio
of coating raw materials translates to a
wide variety of applications – protective
coatings but also printing and packaging,
furniture and flooring, automotive, and
general industry.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices
Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for
demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas
such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic
product development. CW
