The Reboiler:

• IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals is adding a 6 KTA ibuprofen unit at Barnala, India, taking capacity to 18 KTA.
• Praj and Gevo signed a deal giving Praj exclusive rights to commercialize Gevo's bio-isobutanol technology in India.
• Century Lithium is planning a 300 ton-per-day chlor-alkali plant in Nevada or Utah to supply its Angel Island lithium project.
• Ineos is mothballing its three acetyls plants in Hull, UK, Europe's last, putting almost 4,000 jobs at risk.
• R3 Lithium bought and is restarting bankrupt Ascend Elements' lithium recycling plant in Covington, Georgia, backed by a $15M Series A.
• Yara opened Europe's largest carbon capture plant at its Sluiskil ammonia site in the Netherlands, capturing up to 800 KTA of CO2 for storage under the Norwegian seabed.
• HS Hyosung and Umicore's JV is investing 1.2 trillion won (about $860M) in a 20 KTA silicon anode plant in Ulsan, South Korea.
• Olin and Huntsman's merger cleared the U.S. antitrust (HSR) waiting period.
• TotalEnergies bought Plastic Energy's 35% stake in its 15 KTA Grandpuits plastics recycling plant in France, taking full ownership.
• Hindalco started up India's first 30 KTA superfine precipitated aluminum trihydrate plant in Belagavi, Karnataka.
• Holiferm and Organica are combining into one UK business that makes biosurfactants and the cleaning products that use them.
• Shell, Schneider Electric and Axens installed Europe's first industrial-scale electric tubular heater at Shell's Rheinland site in Germany.
• CovationBio started commercial production of bio-based THF and PTMEG at its new 50 KTA plant in Qidong, China.
• Toyobo is buying out Indorama's 50% stake in their Thai airbag yarn JV, Toyobo Indorama Advanced Fibers.
• Lotte Chemical shut down its 1,100 KTA Daesan naphtha cracker in South Korea indefinitely.
• Perstorp is shutting down its polyols plant in Toledo, Ohio.
• Methanex is idling its New Zealand methanol plants indefinitely from early 2027 and selling its gas rights, citing declining gas supply.
• Symrise sold its ~$200M-revenue AmeriTerpenes terpene business to private equity firm Mutares.
• Sumitomo Chemical started mass production of 4-inch indium phosphide epitaxial wafers for AI data centers in Japan.
• Tokuyama opened a $60M semiconductor-grade polysilicon plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
• Atlantic Alumina raised another $350M from the Department of War and private investors, bringing its Gramercy, Louisiana refinery restart funding to $800M.
• CHS and OCP are planning a $450M, 1,000+ KTA phosphate fertilizer plant in Louisiana, the first new one in the U.S. since 1984.
• Asahi Kasei opened a new wet-process Li-ion battery separator coating line in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Egypt broke ground on a $658M, 250 KTA phosphoric acid complex at Abu Tartour.
• X-energy and Dow are getting up to another $1B from the U.S. DOE for their Seadrift, Texas nuclear project, bringing federal support to $2.15B.
• Again acquired industrial biotech firm Genomatica.
• AkzoNobel and Axalta shareholders approved the two companies' all-share merger.
• SABIC sold its Americas and Europe engineering thermoplastics business, eight plants in all, to Mutares for $450M.
• Lallemand and Braskem launched a way for corn ethanol plants to coproduce bio-acetone using a new yeast strain.
• PetroChina's Dushanzi Petrochemical started up a 1,200 KTA ethylene plant in Xinjiang, taking its capacity there to 3,000 KTA.
• Honeywell closed its £1.3B purchase of Johnson Matthey's catalyst technologies business.
• DuPont launched a direct lithium extraction lineup of more than 20 products for lithium brines.
• Evonik started making its own methyl mercaptan feedstock for DL-methionine at its Mobile, Alabama site.
• Alzchem is going to build a $150M nitroguanidine plant in Bushy Park, South Carolina, to supply the U.S. government, with startup planned for 2029.
• Covestro bought two former Vencorex HDI derivatives plants in Rayong, Thailand, and Freeport, Texas.
• Bayer moved its U.S. glyphosate business into a separate unit called Ruveon.
• NextChem closed its €148M purchase of process-technology firm Ballestra Group.
• Dow is spending $100M by 2027 to expand specialty silicones capacity in the U.S., China and Japan.
• Arkema started up a $20M expansion in Calvert City, Kentucky that raises its North American PVDF capacity by 15%.
• Ineos Styrolution is closing its 400 KTA polystyrene plant in Channahon, Illinois.
• The Pentagon offered $1.2B in conditional loans to Phoenix Tailings and Energy Fuels for rare earth processing plants.
• Wacker opened a new specialty silicones plant in Karlovy Vary, its second site in Czechia.
• COIM USA is investing $50M in a renewable polyols plant near Texarkana, Texas.
• LyondellBasell plans to shut its last polypropylene unit in Brindisi, Italy, a 260 KTA line, by the end of 2026.
• Eastman bought Arkema's Jarylec dielectric fluids brand.
• Air Liquide started up a Cryocap CO2-capture pilot for cement at Holcim's CaptureLab in France.
• Freepoint Eco-Systems suspended operations at its plastics pyrolysis plant in Hebron, Ohio, after five Ohio EPA violation notices.
• BASF is closing its expandable polystyrene plant in Ulsan, South Korea.
• Röhm hit full-scale production at its new 250 KTA MMA plant in Bay City, Texas.
• Ingredion is buying Tate & Lyle for £3.7B, expecting $130M in cost savings by 2030.
• Metso launched a single-pass process that turns spodumene concentrate into battery-grade lithium carbonate.
• Hyosung TNC started supplying bio-BDO from its new $1B, 50 KTA plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, using Geno's fermentation tech.
• Trillium raised $13M to run its bio-based acrylonitrile demo plant at INEOS Nitriles' Green Lake site.
• Loop Chemicals licensed Sandia National Laboratories' chemical looping ammonia tech for small-scale, distributed production.
• Nextchem won the licensing and design contract for AdvanSix's 700 short-ton-per-day urea-to-DEF plant in Hopewell, Virginia.
• SaltX and Holcim made Portland-quality cement clinker with a fully electrified process.
• Ineos Acetyls and Sandpiper Chemicals are planning a $1.7B, 1,100 KTA low-carbon methanol plant in Texas City, Texas.