Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. has awarded Larsen & Toubro a 5.76 billion rupee (U.S. $144.4 million) contract to upgrade the refiner’s existing 6,400 barrels per day API Group I base oil plant in Mumbai, India, so that it can produce 200,000 metric tons per year (3,800 b/d) of Group II and 130,000 mt/y (2,500) of Group I base oils. Hindustan Petroleum has said it expects to complete the upgrade project in April 2009. According to L&T, the contract covers a raffinate hydrotreatin...

Materia, a catalyst technology company, last week announced the creation of Elevance Renewable Sciences, with more than $40 million in independent financing. Elevance is a new specialty chemical company that uses renewable oils to create commercial-grade waxes, and eventually lubricants and additives. Led by investments from TPG Star L.P., and TPG Biotechnology Partners II, L.P., Elevance secured more than $40 million in venture capital. It emerged from a collaboration between Pasadena, Calif.-b...

Fires stemming from engine oil leaks, in some cases leading to injuries or damage to structures, have led to a General Motors recall of more than 200,000 1997 to 2003 Buick Regal and Pontiac Grand Prix vehicles equipped with 3.8 liter supercharged V-6 engines, according to a National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration recall notice summary. Engine oil can leak from the valve cover, and [can leak] due to maneuvers such as hard braking, the March 12 recall summary states. If the oil reache...

The U.S. Department of Justice last week filed charges against Lubrizol Corp. ex-employee Kyung J. Kim of Broadview Heights, Ohio, accusing him of conspiring from late 2001 through January 2008 with three executives of Seoul-based SK Chemicals to steal and receive Lubrizol trade secrets involving thermoplastic polyurethane and other technologies. The Justice Department filed the criminal information papers against Kim last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Accord...

Colonial Specialty Chemical has leased a 90,000-square-foot warehouse in Detroit to reach customers in the Midwest, a growing market for the specialty chemical distributor. Tabernacle, N.J.-based Colonial is a stocking distributor representing eight global manufacturers specializing in a variety of products, including biocides and corrosion inhibitors, vegetable oils, surfactants, emulsifiers, antioxidants, fatty acids, dyes, lard oils and specialty esters. The company is a division of Colonial ...

Sasol-Huntsman will increase its maleic anhydride production capacity in Germany by 75 percent, to 105,000 metric tons per year, by early 2011. Sasol-Huntsman, based in Moers, Germany, is a fifty-fifty joint venture between affiliates of Huntsman Corp. and Sasol Ltd. The jv will construct a second 45-kiloton reactor and purification section on the site of its existing plant. The new plants design is similar to Huntsmans 45,000 ton/year plant under construction in Geismar, La., which is expected ...

Dow Biocides announced the cancellation of off-list prices for glutaraldehyde products used in metalworking fluids, and Kraton Polymers said it would raise prices on SEBS and SEPS based polymers and compounds in the North American market. Dow Biocides, a Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based business unit of Dow Chemical, yesterday said it would cancel all off-list prices for all glutaraldehyde products and grades effective April 1 or as contracts allow. Applications for the biocides include metalworking fl...