Bayer spin-off and polymer materials company, Covestro, is investing €1.5 billion (US$1.7 billion) in the construction of a world-scale methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) plant in Baytown, US. The investment at the existing site is the largest single investment in the history of the company. Total capacity will be 500 kilotons/year and production is expected to start in 2024. Total MDI capacities in the region will reach around 740 kilotons/year, making Covestro the industry capacity leader in the region.

Global speciality chemicals company Clariant has announced an updated strategy for its speciality chemicals segment, alongside a collaboration with SABIC on high performance materials. 

By 2021, it will combine its Additives and high value Masterbatches (colour, high temperature resins and health care) businesses into a High Performance Materials division, with parts of SABIC’s Specialties business. It will also divest its remaining Plastics & Coatings Business, including Pigments, standard Masterbatches and Medical Specialties. 

One of the world’s largest polymer companies, Covestro, is planning to build its own chlorine production plant in Tarragona, Spain, which will use a more sustainable process: oxygen-depolarised cathode (ODC) technology, which consumes around a quarter less energy than the conventional method. The company is building the first industrial-scale plant based solely on this technology at its location in Spain, expected to begin in the first half of 2019. 

DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) have opened the world’s first biobased furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) pilot production facility in Decatur, Illinois, US.

FDME is a molecule derived from fructose that can be used to create a variety of biobased chemicals and materials, including plastics, that can be more cost-effective, efficient and sustainable than their fossil fuel- based counterparts.

The Drug, Chemical & Associated Technologies Association (DCAT) has announced the winners of four scholarships presented at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) Special Awards Ceremony on 17 May in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Chemicals company Evonik and electronics giant Siemens have launched a joint research project to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into speciality chemicals, using electricity from renewable sources and bacteria.