EUROPE INDUSTRIAL BRIEFS

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas).

Alternative Fuel

Iran’s MKD to Build Ethanol Plant in Bosnia-Herzegovina

A $150 million ethanol refinery will be built in Bosnia – Herzegovina by Iranian company Mashal Khazar Darya (MKD). Land for the project site has been allocated on a 50 year lease and the fuel produced will be exported to Austria, Germany and the Black Sea region. MKD is an environmental engineering company and its subsidiaries in Canada, UAE and UK will finance the project and carry out the engineering. The 4,400 hectare site for the corn fed plant on the banks of the Savar River will produce 380 million liters of ethanol per year.

Petrochemicals

Saipem Books $1 Billion Contracts

In the first quarter of 2007 Italy’s Saipem won $1 billion contracts for offshore and onshore services in Tunisia, Angola, Norway, Australia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The onshore contracts were in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Among the contracts was a contract for a water injection pump station in Saudi Arabia in a joint venture with Canada’s SNC-Lavalin, and in Pakistan the company won a contract for an ammonia and urea plant in Daharki which will be the largest single train urea plant in the world.

Power

Coal Fires Europe’s ‘Dirty Thirty’ Polluters

The UK and Germany each have ten power plants featured in the list of Europe’s dirtiest power plants reported by the environmental group WWF. The report said that in 2006 the "dirty thirty" were responsible for 393 million tons of CO2 emissions, a total which is equal to 10% of all EU carbon emissions. The Agios Dimitrios and Kardia power stations in Greece were the top polluters followed by RWE’s Niederaussem in Germany. All 30 were coal fired with the top ten running on lignite. RWE and Vattenfall were reported as Europe’s largest corporate polluters.

UK National Grid Couples Power Security with Pollution Control

National Grid in the UK is targeting security of power supply and emission control to be tackled in tandem. The three key areas they will encourage are helping customers to reduce energy demand, investing in low carbon sources of energy and investing in the infrastructure needed to ensure consumers have access to reliable energy supplies. NG said that it has already met the Kyoto Agreement 2012 target of 12.5% emissions reductions for the UK and 8% reductions for the US and is on target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and offices across the company by 60% well before 2050.

Siemens Supplies China’s Coal to Polys Gasifiers

Germany’s Siemens Power Generation (PG) has won a follow-up contract to supply three entrained-flow gasifiers with a thermal capacity of 500 MW each to China’s Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (SNCG) a subsidiary of China’s largest coal producer. These reactors are to be used for the largest polypropylene from coal plant in the world in Ningxia. Earlier this year SNCG ordered the first two 500 MW gasifiers which will start-up in early 2009. The plant will be completed in late 2009 with an annual production capacity of 520,000 tons per annum.

World’s Largest Turbine on Delivery Run from Berlin

Siemens PG is transporting the world’s largest turbine by barge and low loader from Berlin to E.ON’s $750 million experimental power plant at Irsching in Bavaria for delivery in the fourth week of May. The 350 MW turbine weighs 440 tons and is 13 meters long and 5 meters high. Following the test phase the gas turbine plant will be extended to form a high efficiency combined cycle power plant where it will maximize overall plant performance to 530 MW and a maximum efficiency of over 60%. The previous best efficiency attained was 58%. The 2% increase will save fuel and reduce Irsching’s CO2 emissions by 40,000 tons per annum.

640 MW Order for Wind Turbines

Nordex have signed a supply framework agreement with Babcock & Brown for the delivery of 640 MW of turbines. In the first installment, 120 x 2.3 MW and 2.5 MW N90 turbines with a combined capacity of 289 MW will be installed in Portugal and France. There are contract options for a further 100 N90s totaling 100 MW for French projects and the total contract is to be delivered from mid 2008 to 2011. Contract value was not disclosed.