Business Roundup

CordEn PharmaChem's plant in Cork, Ireland, has suffered its third explosion since the beginning of the year. The incident killed one employee and injured two others. Corden was formed in May 2007 following the acquisition of plants in Cork and Belgium by International Chemical Investors Group.

Bridgestone is expanding production of ethylene vinyl acetate film, used to fasten polysilicon solar cells to their glass enclosures, at its plant in Iwata City, Japan. Combined with an ongoing expansion, the $20 million project will double annual capacity for the materials to 2,000 metric tons by the end of 2010.

3M plans to build a plant in Singapore making coatings for film-based products. The company expects the facility to come on-line in 2009.

IBM and Matheson Tri-Gas, a subsidiary of Japan's Taiyo Nippon Sanso, have signed a four-year agreement to develop new materials and processes for semiconductors with 32-nm circuit lines. Engineers from both sides will collaborate on new gas molecules and delivery systems at the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering's Albany NanoTech Complex.

Global Solar Energy, a Tucson, Ariz.-based maker of copper indium gallium diselenide thin-film solar cells, has joined a Dow Chemical-led research consortium that is developing low-cost solar energy roofing shingles. The Dow effort is one of 13 industry-led teams that received funding last year from DOE under the Solar America Initiative.

Chemtura plans to sell its business in organic-based stabilizers for rigid polyvinyl chloride to Germany's Baerlocher. In addition, Baerlocher will manufacture certain PVC heat stabilizers for Chemtura. According to Chemtura, the agreements are part of a restructuring of its non-flame-retardant polymer additives business.

Arch Therapeutics, founded by research scientist Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, has licensed technology from MIT. Arch is developing peptide-containing materials that can prevent or stop bleeding in surgical and trauma situations. Ellis-Behnke received funding from MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation.

Wyeth's head of research, Robert R. Ruffolo Jr., will retire later this year. He will be succeeded by Mikael Dohlsten, previously executive vice president for pharmaceutical R&D at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Nova Chemicals and Reliance Industries plan to form a building and construction joint venture that would use Nova's "green" construction technology to build structures in India. The Nova technology uses expandable polystyrene panels to minimize resource use and increase energy efficiency.