CB&I: The air quality control system company has been awarded two contracts with a combined value of more than $40 million for an air quality control program for five existing coal-fired units. The units represent more than 4,000 MW of electric generating capacity. CB&I will provide turnkey engineering, procurement and construction for implementing modern air quality control technologies that will reduce mercury emissions to bring the units in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
Southwest Engineers: The civil and environmental engineering consulting firm has signed an extensive agreement with Earthwater Resources for a major project on the Bakken Shale oil and gas zone in North Dakota. The project includes drilling and transporting water from a previously undiscovered, nontraditional, groundwater resource to multiple filling stations for the successful fracking of oil and gas wells in the region.
Calysta Energy: The biological gas-to-liquids and biological gas-to-chemicals technology company has entered into an exclusive, multi-year collaboration with NatureWorks to research and develop a practical production process for fermenting methane into lactic acid, the building block for Ingeo, lactide intermediates and polymers made from renewable materials. NatureWorks offers commercially available, low-carbon-footprint Ingeo lactides and biopolymers derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources with performance and economics that compete with oil-based intermediates, plastics and fibers, the company says. If the collaboration results in the successful commercialization of this new technology, the cost to produce Ingeo would be structurally lowered, and the wide range of Ingeo-based consumer and industrial products could be produced from an even broader set of carbon-based feedstocks, NatureWorks says.
DNV: The risk-management and consulting firm has been chosen by the International Maritime Organization to prepare a feasibility study about the potential of liquid natural gas-powered international shipping in the North American Emission Control Area and identify the necessary conditions for the successful implementation of LNG as a fuel source in the region. DNV will deliver the report to the IMO in October.
Linde Group: The technology company has announced it will manage the gas supply infrastructure of SIBUR, the largest petrochemical company in Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe, at its Dzerzhinsk site in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia, also building and operating two new air separation units (ASUs). Both companies signed a long-term contract to this effect today. Under the deal, Linde will invest €70 million ($92 million) in the ASUs. The new on-site plants are set to come on stream at the end of 2015.
Tetronics International: The supplier of direct current plasma plants for hazardous waste treatment and metal recovery has been awarded, with its lead partner Costain, a grant in a UK government funded competition to design and build a prototype plasma system for nuclear waste vitrification. In collaboration, Costain and Tetronics will develop a plasma waste vitrification system, which will both reduce the volume and enhance the stability of the final waste product to be stored, with the ultimate goal of reducing the overall cost of managing nuclear waste.
