On stream: BASF starts up new world-scale plant for hexamethylenediamine in Chalampé, France

“This investment underlines BASF’s strong commitment to chemical production in Europe...”

16-Jun-2025 - BASF has announced the successful startup of its new world-scale hexamethylenediamine (HMD) plant in Chalampé, France, construction of which began in 2022. The plant increases BASF’s annual HMD production capacity to 260,000 metric tons. “This investment underlines BASF’s strong commitment to ...

BASF intends to take over shares in Alsachimie joint venture from DOMO Chemicals

02-Jun-2025 - BASF and DOMO Chemicals have signed an agreement giving BASF the right to take over DOMO Chemicals’ 49% share of the Alsachimie joint venture, in which BASF currently holds 51%. According to applicable laws, the intended transaction is subject to consultations with the relevant social bodies of ...

Renewable Materials Conference 2025: Nominees for the Innovation Award Unveiled

23-May-2025 - The Renewable Materials Conference (RMC), organised by the nova-Institute, will present leading solutions and innovations for replacing fossil carbon with biomass, CO₂ utilisation and recycling. The growing success of RMC demonstrates that its unique concept of presenting all solutions for ...

Nylon Eaters – Microscopic helpers recycle plastic waste

Bacterium “eats” individual building blocks of different types of nylon and converts them into value-added products

12-Feb-2025 - A team of scientists from the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences – Biotechnology at Forschungszentrum Jülich worked together with the company Novonesis to develop a bacterium that “eats” individual building blocks of different types of nylon and converts them into value-added products. The results ...

Rethinking batteries - with aluminium

Research team develops aluminium battery with innovative electrolyte

09-Sep-2024 - Energy storage systems of the future must be cost-effective and sustainable. To achieve this, it is crucial that the materials used are both readily available and recyclable. A research team at TU Bergakademie Freiberg has now made significant progress in the development of an aluminium battery ...

DOMO Chemicals responds to surging demand in China with its new TECHNYL polyamide production plant

01-May-2024 - DOMO Chemicals proudly inaugurates its newest plant in Haiyan, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China. This significant milestone reinforces DOMO's determination to meet rising demand in the Chinese market for its TECHNYL® polyamide-based intelligent solutions. The €14 million (RMB 100 million) investment ...

Sustainable plastics from agricultural waste

The production of these materials is now being scaled up by the EPFL spin-off, Bloom Biorenewables, in an effort to get them into the market

19-Mar-2024 - In our rapidly industrialized world, the quest for sustainable materials has never been more urgent. Plastics, ubiquitous in daily life, pose significant environmental challenges, primarily due to their fossil fuel origins and problematic disposal. Now, a study led by Jeremy Luterbacher's team at ...

Bottled water can contain hundreds of thousands of previously uncounted tiny plastic bits

A new microscopic technique zeroes in on the poorly explored world of nanoplastics, which can pass into blood, cells and your brain

11-Jan-2024 - In recent years, there has been rising concern that tiny particles known as microplastics are showing up basically everywhere on Earth, from polar ice to soil, drinking water and food. Formed when plastics break down into progressively smaller bits, these particles are being consumed by humans ...

Not so silver lining: Microplastics found in clouds could affect the weather

Low-altitude and denser clouds contained greater amounts of microplastics

23-Nov-2023 - From the depths of the seas to snow on mountains and even the air above cities, microplastics are turning up increasingly often. Now, in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, researchers have analyzed microplastics in clouds above mountains. They suggest that these tiny particles could ...

Producing carboxylic acids employing an environmentally friendly technique

Electrochemistry provides new opportunities

30-Aug-2023 - Researchers at Mainz University and Evonik have developed an innovative method to cleave and oxidize double- and triple-bonds in hydrocarbon. Polyamides are present in many different products, such as ropes for mountaineering, parachutes of nylon, and materials for 3D printing. Dicarboxylic acids ...