Business Roundup

Celanese will boost production of isononanoic acid at its plant in Bay City, Texas, through an optimization project. Isononanoic acid is used to produce base stocks for synthetic lubricants, peroxides, and other chemical intermediates.

UOP, the engineering joint venture between Dow Chemical and Honeywell, has named Carlos Guimaraes president and CEO. Guimaraes served most recently as vice president of Dow's environmental operations business and its chemicals operations. He replaces Graeme H. H. Donald, who is leaving UOP to return to the U.K.

Indelpro, a joint venture between Alfa Group and Basell, has selected Basell's Spherizone process for a polypropylene plant to be built in Mexico by the third quarter of 2006. Basell opened the first plant using the multizone circulating reactor technology in Brindisi, Italy, in 2002.

Dow Chemical's FilmTec subsidiary is doubling the size of its Minneapolis nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membrane facility. Construction on the expanded facility, meant to house new membrane lines and fabrication cells, will begin during the third quarter of this year.

DuPont has hired Linda J. Fisher as vice president and chief sustainability officer. Fisher was EPA deputy administrator from 2001 to 2003 and Monsanto's vice president of government affairs from 1995 to 2000.

IBM has settled about 50 lawsuits in California with current and former workers who alleged that process chemicals in the workplace were to blame for cancer and other health ills. In March, a California jury cleared the firm of charges that chemicals sickened workers at a San Jose plant. 

W.R. Grace is seeking bankruptcy court authorization to acquire Alltech International, a chromatography products supplier. Alltech had sales last year of $46.2 million.