Policy Perspective
Samson Yosef explains how IChemE is supporting members to influence policy
Features
What to do About Waste?
Conclusions from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s summit on future waste science policy.
Take it Apart; Put it Back Together
How do you dismantle a chemical plant for re-erection at the other side of the world? Richard Van...
Pet Projects
Standard routines and their place in continuous improvement
Friendly Foams
Building the UK’s first captured-carbon polymerisation plant
Landfill vs Skyfill
How landfill might be the better option for disposal of low-grade plastics
A Battery Olympics
Getting around the limitations of battery devices with clever ways of teaming different technolo...
Lego makes plants from plants
LEGO has announced that plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane will be used in pieces such as...
Rubbish Roads
A solution to the world’s plastic problem could be right under our feet. Toby McCartney, MacRebur...
Turning Ocean Trash into Cash
Project turns plastic waste in the sea into vehicle fuels
Usher in a New Age
Adam Duckett on ushering in a new era
Modern Times
Leo Hendrik Baekeland, the inventor of Bakelite, whose work ushered in the age of polymers
Dermot Manning and colleagues at ICI – Plastic Fantastic
The commercial success of PE starts with Reginald Gibson, Eric Fawcett, Michael Perrin and Dermot...
News
100+ partners commit to the Circular Plastics Alliance
MORE than 100 public and private partners, including from the chemical sector, have signed the De...
Cracker consortium aims to reduce carbon emissions
SIX companies with European petrochemical operations have established a consortium that will join...
Behold the Plastic Age: synthetic fibres found in fossil record
GEOLOGISTS could one day determine the age of rocks by measuring the amount of plastic found in s...
BASF and Domo Chemicals to acquire Solvay’s polyamide business
BASF, Solvay, and Domo Chemicals have reached an agreement for the acquisition of Solvay’s polyam...
Jaguar Land Rover and BASF trial recycled plastic in cars
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has partnered with BASF in a pilot research project to trial plastic recy...
Covestro partners with 3D printing pioneer to scale up production
COVESTRO is working to scale up the production of a resin developed by Silicon Valley firm Carbon...
Neste and LyondellBasell claim bioplastic first
NESTE and LyondellBasell are claiming an industry-first with the parallel, commercial-scale produ...
Avantium commercialising PEF production
CHEMICALS company Avantium is commercialising production of polyethylene furanoate (PEF), a 100% ...
Petronas Chemicals looks to convert waste plastic into feedstock
PETRONAS Chemicals is investigating building a plant to turn plastic waste into virgin feedstock ...
A step towards closing the carbon loop
RESEARCHERS at the University of Toronto (UoT), Canada have developed a novel electrochemical pat...
New plastic can be recycled repeatedly
SCIENTISTS at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL) hav...
BASF to build two plastics plants at proposed site in China
BASF is to build an engineering plastics compounding plant and a thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU...
ExxonMobil doubles manufacturing capacity of UK specialty elastomers plant
FOLLOWING a plant expansion ExxonMobil has doubled the manufacturing capacity of a plant in Newpo...
A tougher bioplastic for food packaging
ADDING rubber to bioplastic to make it less brittle has led to the development of a new type of b...
Consortium aims to bring world-first PET recycling technology to market
PEPSICO, Nestlé Waters, and Suntory Beverage and Food Europe have joined a consortium to help bri...
BP joins effort to make paraxylene from biological sources
BP has formed a partnership with Virent and Johnson Matthey to commercialise a process that produ...
ECHA publishes comprehensive plastic additive inventory
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has published a comprehensive inventory of all of the high-v...
Chemical engineers quiz MPs on science funding and single-use plastic
IN a reversal of roles, chemical engineers took the opportunity yesterday to quiz UK policy leade...
Evonik sells methacrylates business for €3bn
EVONIK is selling its methacrylates business to private equity firm Advent International for €3bn...
A new process for converting plastic waste to fuel
A NEW process has been developed that uses supercritical water to transform polypropylene plastic...
Report identifies challenges towards a plastics circular economy
THE European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) has released a report identi...
Improved process for making plastics from sulfur
SCIENTISTS led by the University of Liverpool, UK have discovered a novel catalytic process for t...
New alliance combatting environmental plastic waste
NEARLY 30 companies from across the plastic value-chain, including BASF, Dow Chemical, Shell, and...
Coca-Cola Company to extend loan for novel PET recycling technology
THE Coca-Cola Company has announced an agreement extending a loan to Ioniqa Technologies, a start...
UK government announces £60m in funding for sustainable packaging
THE UK government has announced the launch of a £60m (US$76m) innovation fund to accelerate the d...
The next step for CO2-based plastics
COVESTRO’s carbon dioxide-based polyols have been used to produce synthetic sports flooring. The ...
Recycling mixed plastics together
RESEARCHERS in the UK have undertaken a project which aims to develop new technologies for dealin...
New MOF makes plastic manufacturing more energy efficient
RESEARCHERS have developed a metal-organic framework (MOF) containing iron-peroxo (Fe2(O2)) sites...
Producing hydrogen from plastic waste
A PROCESS has been developed to convert waste plastic into hydrogen which could be used as fuel.
Ineos picks McDermott for new PDH unit
INEOS has awarded McDermott a contract for the licence and engineering of a new propane dehydroge...
New technique for recycling multi-layer packaging
CRISP packets, chocolate wrappers, and blister packets for pills are all extremely difficult to r...
Neste aims to turn plastic waste into fuel
NESTE, a producer of renewable diesel, is developing ways to turn liquified plastic waste into a ...
New process for creating biodegradable polyesters
RESEARCHERS have developed a new polymerisation process involving a light-activated catalyst that...
Stemming the flow of plastic waste
EUROPE has proposed a law banning or restricting single-use plastics, the UN has released a polic...
Top ten bio-based chemicals for UK economic growth
A REPORT from the Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Network (LBNet) has identified ten biochemicals whe...
DuPont and ADM launch bioplastic pilot plant
DUPONT and ADM have announced the opening of a pilot plant in that will be the world’s first prod...
Plastic as a heat conductor
A PLASTIC has been developed that can dissipate heat instead of trapping it, which could be used ...
Engineered enzyme digests plastic
AN EXPERIMENT to study a plastic-eating bacterium accidentally created a mutant enzyme that degra...
Unilever joins forces with Ioniqa to scale up breakthrough plastic waste recycling process
UNILEVER has formed a partnership with processing pioneer Ioniqa and Indorama, the world’s larges...
Shell shows scale of work underway at Geismar expansion
SHELL has released photos showing its progress building the world’s largest alpha olefins product...
Green LEGO gets greener
LEGO has announced that plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane will be used in pieces such as...
Europe's first waste-to-chemistry facility provides solution for non-recyclable plastics
A FACILITY that will convert non-recyclable wastes into biofuels and chemicals for industrial use...
LyondellBasell announce plans to acquire A. Schulman
PLASTICS company LyondellBasell has announced that it will merge with A. Schulman as part of a US...
Using LEGO bricks for microfluidics
RESEARCHERS at MIT have simplified the process of creating microfluidics prototypes by building t...
Genomatica and Aquafil join forces to make bio-based nylon
GENOMATICA is working with nylon-maker Aquafil to produce one of its key feedstocks – caprolactam...
UK launches 25-year plastic waste plan
THE UK government has launched a 25-year plan to protect the environment and reduce “avoidable” p...
UK plastic recycling crisis expected
THE UK’S recycling industry says it may not be able to cope with an increase in plastic waste, as...
Locking plastic in concrete
ADDING plastic bottles to concrete could lead not only to lower carbon emissions, but improve str...
Evonik develops new process for MMA
EVONIK has developed a more efficient process to produce methyl methacrylate (MMA), a widely-used...
Petronas Chemicals, Saudi Aramco in polymers JV
PETRONAS CHEMICALS GROUP has sold a 50% stake in its PRPC Polymers subsidiary to Saudi Aramco for...
Surf and turf: replacing plastic laminates
A COMPOSTABLE biomaterial made of derivatives from lobster shells and wood could sustainably repl...
Solvay sells polyamide business to BASF
SOLVAY is selling its integrated polyamides business to BASF for €1.6bn (US$1.92bn) as it continu...
Caterpillars might not break down plastic after all
RESEARCHERS in Germany say that research earlier this year showing that waxworms can chemically b...
Chemical fire reported at Arkema Texas plant
ARKEMA has reported a chemical fire at its organic peroxide (OP) plant in Crosby, Texas, amid flo...
Chemical fire expected at flooded Texas plant
A CHEMICAL fire or explosion is expected within days at Arkema’s organic peroxide plant in Crosby...
Spraying electric rainbows
A SAFER, easier process to apply colour-changing conjugated polymer films to consumer goods such ...
Cyborg bacteria make chemicals from sunlight
“CYBORG” bacteria covered in tiny solar panels have been demonstrated to produce acetic acid from...
Sadara JV commissions last plant
SAUDI-based Sadara Chemical Company has commissioned the last of 26 plants at its US$20bn petroch...
Giving green polymers the blue light
BLUE light has been used by researchers to create an interpenetrating polymeric network (IPN) in ...
Making polysulfates and polysulfonates
RESEARCHERS using so-called “click chemistry” say they have developed a fast, easy way to make su...
First global plastics analysis
A WORLD-first study of the production, use and fate of all plastics ever made has shown that 8.3 ...
Making polycarbonate from sugar and CO2
CHEMISTS at the University of Bath, UK, have developed a process to create polycarbonate plastic ...
