Chemical Industry Weekly News Round-Up, July 2

This Week on CW:

Dow and Mitsui have announced the formation of a chlor-alkali joint venture. The Texas-based j.v. will produce 880,000 m.t./year of caustic soda and 800,000 m.t./year of chlorine.

BP, which will pay $20 billion in compensation to victims of the Deepwater Horizon spill, has announced an asset disposal program. Could its chemicals business, including para-xylene, PTA, and acetic acid, be on the selling block?

Univar, which is currently owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, has filed for an $862.5 million IPO.

A sharp drop in glyphosate profits led to a 45% decline in earnings for Monsanto, to $384 million. Meanwhile, Omnova posted record second-quarter income.

Lubrizol would like to buy back as much as 10% of its shares over the next 18 to 24 months, in a share repurchase program announced this week. The company's bid for Cognis was spurned last month, as the German specialties firm agreed to a deal with BASF.

Around the web:

A California-based biotech startup has genetically engineered a virus with the capability to turn methane into ethylene, the New York Times reports.

Also in the Times, could the wrangling over Senate climate legislation end with a lame-duck session after November's elections?

The Sierra Club and Dow Chemical – yes, you read that right – collaborated on an editorial in Forbes urging the passage of the Home Star bill, which would provide incentives for homeowners to weatherize their homes.

And now, via Bio-Pol Blog, a video on producing recyclable bioplastics from wastewater: