Americas
HP Reliability: Selecting steam turbines in a ‘lean’ environment
We received a nice compliment recently from a reader in South America. He wrote: “I am a mechanical engineer working on power plant designs at a major corporation and admire your work as a writer..
HP Construction: North America
Sundrop Fuels, Inc., plans to construct and operate its first production facility on about 1,200 acres of land that it has purchased near Alexandria, Louisiana. The inaugural plant will use sustainabl..
HP Construction: South America
Toyo Engineering Corp., in consortium with Y&V Ingeniería y Construcción, C.A., has a project management consultant (PMC) contract for the heavy-oil upgrading project of Petróleos de Ve..
HP Impact: Bio-based polymers could be next big thing
Biofuels and bio-based chemicals have been promoted as a potential solution for dependence on petroleum. They also have favorable greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels and petrochemicals b..
HP Innovations: HPInnovations
AESSEAL wins big at IMechE awards   Fig. 1. Award-winning   AESSEAL offers a wide range   of products. The UK-based mechanical seals manufacturer was nominated for seven out o..
Westlake Chemical raises bid for Georgia Gulf
Westlake Chemical has submitted a revised proposal to the board of Georgia Gulf to acquire all the outstanding shares of the company for $35.00/share in cash. The revised proposal represents a 17% increase to Westlake’s previous bid, the company said.
Argentina to push oil companies to invest more
Governors from Argentina's top 10 oil-producing provinces will meet next week in a bid to push oil and gas companies to increase oil and gas output. In a speech last week, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner bashed the industry for declining output and called on oil companies to boost production.
Georgia Gulf rejects revised takeover bid from Westlake Chemical
Georgia Gulf on Wednesday rejected the revised takeover bid from US-based Westlake Chemical, which bumped its offer to $35/share from an earlier $30/share. The company said the offer was far from compelling and did not represent an appropriate price to discuss the sale.
Praxair sells US advanced components unit to NGK
Praxair has sold its advanced components business to Fremont, Calif.-based FM Industries, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s NGK Insulators. The advanced components business designs, engineers, manufactures and supplies electrostatic chucks (ESCs) and critical chamber components for semiconductor processing equipment.
ExxonMobil licenses technology on oil sands steam injection to Baker Hughes
ExxonMobil has awarded the first license for its patented steam injection system and production method to Baker Hughes to improve the efficiency of in-situ oil sands projects. The technology provides more effective regulation and distribution of steam in long horizontal wells.

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