Linde to Codevelop CCS Project in U.K.
BOC, a subsidiary of Linde, has been brought in as a technology partner to codevelop a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system at the Drax coal fired power station (Selby, U.K.). BOC joins energy firm Drax (Selby) and energy infrastructure company Alstom (London) on the project. The Drax plant is the...

Chemical Industry Weekly News Round-Up, Feb. 3
This Week on CW:   Dow Chemical reported a $20 million loss on a tax-related one-time charge. Excluding the charge, Dow recorded earnings of $289 million, down from the year-ago period and falling short of analysts’ estimates. Meanwhile, Cabot reported fourth-quarter net income that fell 39%, to $46...

Chilean Mining Concern Buys Stake in Molycorp
Molibdenos y Metales S.A. (Molymet; Santiago, Chile) has purchased a 12.5 million-share stake in Molycorp (Greenwood Village, CO) worth $390 million, Molycorp says. Molymet is the world’s largest processor of molybdenum and rhenium, both of which are used in high-temperature...

ACI 2012: Top Cleaning Products CEOs Say Sustainability and Innovation Will Drive Growth
Continued development of more sustainable products and processes, successful innovation, and a commitment to deliver value to customers are three drivers that will ensure strong industry growth, the CEOs of Procter & Gamble and Sun Products told attendees at the American Cleaning Institute’s (ACI) CEO Panel Thursday....

AkzoNobel Invests in Plant to Supply New Pulp Mill in Brazil
AkzoNobel says its Eka Chemicals subsidiary plans to invest €80 million ($105 million) in the construction of a new pulp "chemical island" facility in Brazil. Eka Chemicals, AkzoNobel's pulp and paper chemicals business, will supply the Suzano Maranhão pulp mill from the new...

BASF Invests in U.S.-Based Advanced Materials Company
BASF Venture Capital, a BASF subsidiary, says it has participated in a $27 million financing round by investing $5 million in Solidia Technologies (Piscataway, NJ), a start-up company developing a technology for converting waste into building materials, including concrete. Kleiner Perkins Caufield and...

Novozymes Collaborates on Seaweed-to-Biofuels Project in India
Enzymes group Novozymes says it has created an “exploratory research agreement” with Sea6 Energy (Chennai, India), a start-up biotech firm, to jointly develop an enzymatic process for converting seaweed-based carbohydrates to sugar, which can then be fermented to produce ethanol for fuel, fine...

U.K. Spin-out Firm to Generate BioButanol from Whiskey Byproduct
Celtic Renewables (Edinburgh, U.K.), a biotech company developing a process for converting whiskey byproducts into biobutanol and other biochemicals, has been launched yesterday. The start-up company is a spin out from Napier University (Edinburgh). The fledgling company is now working with government...

Pilot Carbon Emissions Trading System Readied in China
The Asian Development Bank (ADB; Manila) says it will help China set up a pilot provincial emissions trading system that could pave the way for a national scheme and lower greenhouse gas emissions in the country. China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon emissions, but it has been making major...

Study: Biofuels Could Replace 50% of Gasoline by 2030
Advanced biofuels are set to become an important factor in the global economy and could replace more than 50% of the world's gasoline demand in 2030, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report dubbed "Moving towards a next-generation ethanol economy" was commissioned...