Grace licenses UNIPOL technology to Sinochem Quanzhou in China

 W R Grace & Co (GRA) has contracted to license its UNIPOL PP process technology to Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co Ltd for a 1-million-tonne-per-year ethylene cracker and refinery expansion project at its facility in Quanzhou, Fujian province, China. The new 350-kiloton-per-year line is expected to begin operations in 2020 to produce high-end impact copolymers.

The Quanzhou operation is a subsidiary of Sinochem Group of Beijing, one of China’s four state oil companies and its leading chemical service provider.

The project represents the 26th UNIPOL PP process technology reactor lines licensed in China. With this license, the total design capacity of UNIPOL PP lines in China will exceed 8,000 kilotons per year.

Grace's all gas-phase UNIPOL PP process technology provides the most advanced and broadest range of homopolymers, random copolymers, and impact copolymers in the industry. As the simplest of all PP process technologies, with fewer moving parts and less equipment than any alternative, its reliable, stable, and predictable operation lead to lower capital, operating, and maintenance costs.

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New chemistry method simplifies late-stage modification of drug molecules

Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have invented a technique that overcomes a long-standing problem in organic chemistry and should streamline the process of discovery and development for many new drugs.

The technique, known as ligand-accelerated non-directed C–H functionalization, is expected to find application not just in the pharmaceutical chemistry industry but also in a wide range of other chemical industries. However, it should be particularly useful for altering complex candidate drug molecules to find versions with optimal therapeutic properties.

“One can use this new technology to modify a drug molecule at a late stage of synthesis, to improve the molecule’s properties without having to go back to change the synthesis from the beginning,” said study senior author Jin-Quan Yu, PhD, Frank and Bertha Hupp professor in the department of chemistry at TSRI.

The new method, reported in the journal Nature, was developed by Yu’s laboratory in collaboration with scientists at Bristol-Myers Squibb, who are already applying the method in their drug development programs.

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Songwon increases price for polymer stabilizers globally

 Songwon Industrial Co Ltd said that it is increasing prices for the majority of its polymer stabilizers. The increase will vary depending on product type:

• Antioxidants: 5 to 10 percent
• UV absorbers and thioesters: 5 to 15 percent

The new prices will be effective from 1 December 2017.

BASF inaugurates electronic materials plant in Yeosu, South Korea

BASF SE has started operations at a new electronic materials production plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, South Korea. The new plant produces ultra-pure NH4OH (electronic-grade ammonia water) used in the semiconductor and display manufacturing processes. The facility is also now expanding its production of advanced mixtures for cleaning and etching solutions.

The new plant features an advanced analytics laboratory as well as the ultra-pure utilities that are designed to accommodate the future needs of leading electronics customers in the Korea market and abroad.

Located on the southwest coast of Korea, the plant is equipped with BASF's unique, cutting-edge manufacturing facilities including best-in-class quality analysis and quality management systems. Products from Yeosu will primarily be used for next-generation microchips designed in single-digit nodes with less than 10 nanometers.

“Korea is a strategically important market for advanced electronic components, especially semiconductors and displays. The production facility ideally complements our local R&D presence in Korea, where we develop next-generation technologies in close partnership with our customers,” said Lothar Laupichler, senior vice president, BASF Electronic Materials.

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K+S, BUND reach settlement over saline wastewater disposal

K+S AG and the BUND (Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation Germany) have agreed on a settlement after intensive talks at management board level.

Assuming a normal water flow of the Werra, K+S will renounce up to one million cubic meters of the deep-well injection volume approved for the next four years, and will also not submit any new application for injection after the current approval expires at the end of 2021. In return, the BUND will withdraw its suit and the emergency petition based on it against the existing injection permit.

With the withdrawal of the suit and the emergency petition by the BUND, K+S receives legal security for its existing injection permit and will in return, as of 2018 until the currently approved deep-well injection runs out at the end of 2021, not exhaust a considerable part of the permitted injection volume.

The settlement also allows the parties to lay a foundation for further cooperation. Judicial disputes are to be avoided as far as possible in the future. K+S and the BUND are both concerned to clear up any contentious issues, taking mutual interests into account. There will, therefore, be a closer dialogue between them.

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Sumitomo to build high-purity chemicals plant in China

Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd has begun construction of a new plant of high-purity chemicals for semiconductors at Sumika Electronic Materials (Changzhou) Co Ltd, a recently-incorporated company in Changzhou City, China.

The new facility, is the company's second high-purity chemicals facility in China after its first plant in Xi’an, is scheduled to start commercial production in March 2019.

Following a processing facility and sales office for optical functional films established in Shanghai in 2001, Sumitomo Chemical has reinforced its business base for IT-related chemicals in China over the years in order to provide fine-tuned response to customers’ specific needs.

The business base is currently at eight locations throughout the country including Beijing and Wuxi. At these locations, Sumitomo Chemical manufactures and sells polarizing films for LCD panels or high-purity chemicals for semiconductors.

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BASF to increase prices for lubricant oil additives globally

BASF SE said that it will increase prices globally across the portfolios of lubricant oil additives, base stocks and finished lubricants by 5 to 9 percent depending on the specific product.

The price increase will be effective on 1 December 2017.

The price adjustments are necessary due to continued increases in the cost of raw materials, transportation, energy and regulatory.

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