Business Roundup

Loop Industries and Ester Industries intend to form a recycling joint venture in India that will use Loop’s depolymerization technology to convert postconsumer polyethylene terephthalate into 70,000 metric tons of dimethyl terephthalate and 23,000 metric tons of ethylene glycol annually. Ester will use this output to make specialty polyester polymers.

Orion Engineered Carbons is investing in Alpha Carbone, a French firm that plans to build a pyrolysis-based tire-recycling plant by late 2025. Orion intends to use the pyrolysis oil product from the facility to make carbon black, used in tires to reinforce rubber.

ExxonMobil plans to double capacity at its plastics recycling plant in Baytown, Texas. The company started up its first pyrolysis plant in Baytown about a year ago, and it has since processed 22,000 metric tons of plastic.

Nano Nuclear Energy has raised $10.25 million in an initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The firm is developing 1–2 MW nuclear reactors that can fit on the back of a semitruck and is building a production plant for high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.

Shin-Etsu Chemical will build a $13.5 million silicone plant near Shanghai. The facility will make bulk and specialty silicone emulsions as well as other forms of silicone, primarily for the Chinese market.

Syensqo, which separated from Solvay last year, has started construction on a plant in Augusta, Georgia, that will produce polyvinylidene fluoride. The polymer is used as a binder for cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries.

FMC is partnering with AgroSpheres to develop new bioinsecticides using RNA interference technology. AgroSpheres will produce encapsulated RNA molecules, and FMC will provide high-throughput testing of pesticides.

Wacker Chemie is adding capacity in San Diego to manufacture fermentation-derived messenger RNA and recombinant proteins. The firm is transferring technology from its European sites to complement the San Diego site’s expertise in plasma DNA.