Merck KGaA is to spend €20 million to expand the R&D and manufacturing capabilities at its site in Shizuoka, Japan, where it opened a 6,000 m2 facility in January. Due to be complete by January 2022, this will mainly address demand in areas driven by the digital economy boom.
Chemours has announced plans to achieve a 60% absolute reduction of operations-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. It warned, however, that achieving this “will require significant collaboration in both the public and private sectors to deliver technological innovation and government policies that enable and incentivise the transition to a greener economy”.
ECHA has prioritised seven substances of very high concern (SVHCs) from the Candidate List and recommended that the European Commission add them to Authorisation List under REACH. All were chosen because they are hazardous, produced in high volumes and widely used, the agency said. This is the tenth such recommendation.
Among them are three siloxanes, which are produced at volumes of up to 1,000 or up to 10,000 tonnes/year. All are deemed to be harmful for the environment because they are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic and/or very persistent and very bioaccumulative:
Azelis has acquired Spectrum Chemicals and Nortons Exim in India from the Mehta family on undisclosed terms. Both specialise in the distribution of speciality chemicals for home care, road markings, agrochemicals and other applications. Current owner Parindu Mehta will remain at the helm.
We sum up the latest developments in one of the industry's hottest fields
There have been multiple recent announcements across the world about investments in cleaner forms of hydrogen. These mainly refer to ‘green hydrogen’ produced by electrolysis, though also ‘blue hydrogen’, which is made from natural gas in a reforming process, in which CO2 emissions are captured for storage.
Ascensus has completed the acquisition of Strem Chemicals, bringing together two major suppliers of catalogue chemicals, mainly for life science, microelectronic and other speciality applications. Strem CEO Ephraim Honig will become chief science and innovation officer and will oversee the combined businesses’ R&D function.
Croda International has come first in the Most Sustainable International Company rankings for companies headquartered outside the US. Calvert Research and Management, a responsible investment management firm, carried these rankings out for financial news source Barron’s. It analysed more than 230 key performance indicators of environmental, social and governance performance.
