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Millennium Cell, (Eatontown, N.J.), has begun work under a technology agreement with Dutch research firm Avantium Technologies. The two companies are developing improved catalysts systems for Millennium’s hydrogen storage technology, which is targeted at fuel-cell applications.

BP and Insititut Francais du Petrole (IFP) have formed an alliance to develop and commercialize BP’s OATS gasoline desulfuriztion technology. IFP will take over the further development of OATS, carry out pilot testing, and become exclusive licensor of the technology. The first commercial units are expected to be operational before 2003.

Degussa is setting up an amino acid joint venture in China. With an investment of $22 million, it will take over some production facilities owned by Nanning Only Time Pharmaceuticals in Nanning Guangxi province. Only Time will retain a 5% stake. Degussa intends to upgrade the facilities and implement cGMP standards by 2003.

Polymer additives maker Chemson-Group (Arnoldstein, Austria) has licensed technology from Crompton to produce a range of basic organic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) heat stabilizers in Europe that can replace lead stabilizers.

BE&K, (Birmingham, AL), has been awarded a contract by Chevron Phillips Chemical and Solvay for a 50-50 high-density polyethylene project. The 7600-million lbs year plant will be built at Cedar Bayou, TX and use the Chevron Phillips slurry-loop technology. BE&K has partnered with Technip on the project, which is due onstream in late 2002.

Lurgi has won a $120 million contract to build a methanol plant for Zagros Petrochemical, at Bandar Assaluye, Iran. Lurgi says it will be the world’s largest methanol plant, with a capacity of 1.8 million m.t./year, and it is slated to come onstream in 2004. The plant will use the Lurgi technology, which reduces capital investment and methanol production cost.

Borealis and Univation Technologies have agreed to exchange patent rights for certain single-site polyethylene (PE) catalysts. The companies will not exchange know-how or technology. The deal gives Borealis a license for Univation’s single-site patents for use in the Borstar PE process and expands Univation’s patent rights to certain unspecified Borealis patents.

DuPont says it will license certain patents related to a chemical synthesis technology to Battelle (Columbus, OH). It is the first technology transfer agreement conducted using yet2.com, an Internet technology marketplace.

National Petrochemical (Tehran) has awarded a 30-billion yen (248.6 million) contract to a consortium, of Toyo Engineering, Chiyoda, Mitsui &Co, and Petrochemical Industries Design Engineering (Tehran) for a fertilizer plant at Bandar, Assaluyeh, Iran. It will have capacity for 2,050 m.t./day of ammonia and 3,250 m.t./day of urea. The turnkey contract covers basic and detailed engineering, procurement, and technical assistance services.

ExxonMobil Chemical and LG-Caltex have signed a technology licensing agreement for LG-Caltex to use ExxonMobil’s selective toluene disproportionation to paraxylene (PxMax) process at its Yosu, South Korea, facility.

BP has licensed the Showa Denko bimodal slurry-loop process for its planned 250,000-m.t./year high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Grangemouth, U.K. The process uses Ziegler-Natta chromium catalysts and makes HDPE grades that are suitable for films and plastic bottles. BP also operates a 280,000-m.t./year Innovene gas-phase HDPE plant at Grangemouth and will start up a 185,000-m.t.-year Innovene unit there. The company also has a 230,000-m.t./year gas-phase HDPE plant at Lavera, France. BP and Solvay are combining their HDPE businesses into two joint ventures, one in Europe and the other in U.S.

BP and Eastman Chemical have agreed to collaborate in the marketing and licensing of Eastman’s Energx advanced ZieglerNatta (Z-N) polyethylene (PE) catalysts. The agreement gives BP rights to use Energx, and to market and license it to other users of gas-phase technology, including BP’s Innovene gas-phase PE process.

ABB Lummus Global has received a contract worth $26 million to build a 300,000-m.t./year ethyl benzene (EB) Plant for Unipetrol’s (Prague), Czech Republic. The Plant will use UOP technology and is due to start up in May 2003.

Altera Corp. and NewLogic Technologies AG (Lustenau, Austria), will make available what the companies claim is first licensable Bluetooth intellectual property (IP) core for PLDs. San Jose-based Altera hopes this device will allow designers to create a single-chip Blue-tooth device based on its system-on-a-programmable-chip technology.

Microtune Inc. (Plano, Texas) has been granted a patent covering its cable modem single-conversion tuner. U.S. Patent No. 6,169,569 protects the fundamental architecture of Microtune’s cable modem tuners.

Burlingame, California-based Metron Technology, N.V. has signed an agreement with San Jose-based Novellus Systems Inc. under which Metron will manufacture Novellus’ 3290 and XM series physical vapor deposition legacy tools. Metron will manufacture the products at its facility in Scotland and will provide sales, marketing and technical support services for the product line worldwide.

LSI Logic Corp. (LSI) announced that Conexant Systems Inc. is the latest to license its line of DSP cores.

NuTool Inc. said that the U.S. patent office granted it a patent for its electrochemical mechanical deposition (ECMD) technology, which NuTool can deposit and planarize copper in one step.

A judge has limited the scope of Rambus Inc.’s patents for the forthcoming court case against Infineon Technologies AG as a result of a series of rulings at hearing held in Richmond, VA. U.S. District Judge Robert Payne followed up with a memorandum opinion. In the memorandum opinion the judge decided to go with a narrower interpretation of the patents than Rambus’ attorneys had sought.

ASAHI GLASS and Dai Nippon Printing plan to establish a 50/50 joint venture to produce ulterior substrates for plasma display panels (PDP). The plant, to be built on land at an Asahi Glass facility in Kita Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, is expected on stream by October 2002.

GenRad Inc. has signed a multi-million-dollar global licensing agreement with Toronto-based Celestica Inc. to deploy its next-generation Shop Floor Data Manager (SFDM) software. Westford, Mass.-based GenRad’s MES application will initially use in Celestica’s high-volume manufacturing facility in Thailand.

 © 2000 World Technology/PLG