July 2008 - ICIS Blogs

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Gory anti-freeze murder case

A US court convicted a man of murdering his wife by poisoning with ethylene glycol ( MEG ) anti-freeze, according to this gruesome article which my colleague Nel found today on CNN.com/crime. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The case...

Published 3 Jul 2008 14:30 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: chemicals, MEG, murder, glycol, anti-freeze
Reed Business Information on Dutch satirical news site

Imagine my astonishment when this Dutch joke article on the sale of our own Reed Business Information (parent company of ICIS) popped out of Google this afternoon. It is from the website 925people.nl (nine to five, gettit?) and titled: " Te Koop...

Published 30 Jul 2008 17:45 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: gossip, ICIS, RBI, Reed Elsevier, corporate life, Financial Times, media life, 925people.nl, FT, Reed Business Information
The blog's first birthday

Its now a year since the blog started. Since then, 213 postings have appeared. It is now read in 72 countries and 620 cities (shown above). Most encouragingly, readership continues to steadily increase. Since January, it has risen a further 301%. The...

Published 5 Jul 2008 10:37 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: China, India, Wal-Mart, Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, credit crunch, food and energy costs, Futures trading, inflation, M & A, Leverage, Northern Rock, Dow Chemical, subprime mortgage crisis, Thailand, Warren Buffett, crude oil prices, Bear Stearns, global downturn, auto sales, Pension funds, feedstock pricing, Maserati, Tesco, Gisele Bundchen
US, Iran to meet - crude drops $20/bbl

I suggested at the weekend that the Iran issue had the potential to move oil prices by $50/bbl either way. Since then, prices have fallen $20/bbl to $130/bbl, on news that the USA and Iran will meet tomorrow for the first time in nearly 30 years. If they...

Published 18 Jul 2008 6:07 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: USA, Economic growth, Oil markets, Futures trading, Leverage, crude oil prices, Iran, Israel
US auto sales collapse in June

'Collapse' is not a word that should be used lightly in business. But there is no other way to describe June's US auto sales figures: GM reported June sales down 15% Toyota were down 12% Ford were down 28% Chrysler were down 36% These declines...

Published 3 Jul 2008 12:38 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, auto sales, Toyota, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, downturn
Bank of England warns on inflation

Andrew Sentance of the Bank of England has issued a very clear analysis of current oil and commodity price movements. It rejects the view that these have been caused by speculators. Instead it points to increasing demand, and lack of supply, as the principal...

Published 17 Jul 2008 17:38 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, Bank of England, inflation, M & A, Leverage, crude oil prices
Carbon tax pains now in Canada

Should consumers directly pay for fossil fuel-based carbon emissions? Some Canadian officials seem to think so as drivers in British Columbia is now greeted with the tax with some gasoline stations raising their gasoline prices to cover the tax costs...

Published 3 Jul 2008 10:43 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: Canada, Regulation, carbon, emission, Government, gasoline, tax, utilities
Why are Brits rubbish at recycling?

My colleague Ed Cox has quite a controversial take on the British approach to recycling... As I danced down the stairs on Saturday morning with another couple of bin bags full of rubbish, I asked myself why we Brits are so bad at recycling? I'm not...

Published 3 Jul 2008 15:00 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: plastics, chemicals, London, gossip, recycling, Germany, PET, PVC, bottles
European refining margins 'at 4 year low'

European refining margins are falling, as the US's need for gasoline imports reduces. Margins have reached a 4 year low of minus $6.21/bbl , according to Bloomberg. And the problem is likely to get worse, as the US moves towards greater self-sufficiency...

Published 8 Jul 2008 12:44 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Refining, Brent oil prices
US offshore drilling un-banned

Just saw this news from ICIS that President Bush is lifting an executive ban on offshore drilling that has long stood since his dad was president. The presidential offshore development ban was put in place by the first President Bush in 1990 while Congress...

Published 14 Jul 2008 16:30 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: Environment, Oil, Regulation, Government, gas, Congress, ban, offshore, drilling, President
A Gore-y energy plan?

Ex-vice president Al Gore seems to think that the US is ready and able to eliminate the use of coal, natural gas or petroleum oil in US electricity within 10 years by using alternative energies such as wind, solar and geothermal. According to his speech...

Published 18 Jul 2008 16:21 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: Policy, Environment, Oil, General, Government, solar, wind, renewable energy, petroleum, Al Gore
Ethanol without the microbes

Interesting comment from David Benson, a bit off topic, but bang on the money about alternative technologies. This has a lot of things I like, especially the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis plant which uses hydrogen from electrolysed water, (electricity generated...

Published 15 Jul 2008 11:05 by The Big Biofuels Blog

Filed under: America, USA, US, ethanol, Water, technology, carbon, electrolysis, dioxide, Doty, Fischer-Tropsch
Ineos goes down the Fischer-Tropsch route to ethanol from municipal waste

Ineos goes down the Fischer-Tropsch route to ethanol from municipal waste, according to a press release from the company, reported on ICIS news and in newspapers like the Times today . I like this technology, as you'll know by now and I think that...

Published 21 Jul 2008 13:26 by The Big Biofuels Blog

Filed under: America, USA, US, ethanol, UK, technology, carbon, gas, waste, Ineos, hydrogen, Bioethanol, dioxide, Ljungdahlii, municipal, Clostridium
US Navy gets heated ACs

The US Navy is getting cool by using solar energy. According to GreenCore Technology , it is installing its solar air conditioners at a remote laboratory site operated by the Naval Research Laboratories (NRL). The company will also install ten GreenCore...

Published 31 Jul 2008 17:23 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: Products, General, Government, solar, US Navy, air conditioner
Totally recyclable PLA cups for ICIS smoothies

Nigel Davis enthuses about drinking his smoothies out of fully recyclable PLA ... It's getting everywhere. These recyclable PLA (polylactic acid) smoothie cups were spotted in the ICIS canteen on Wednesday. The big recycling push here at Reed Business...

Published 16 Jul 2008 13:04 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: plastics, chemicals, trivia, recycling, ICIS, packaging, hi-tech, RBI, smoothies, PLA

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July 2008 - ICIS Blogs

Syndication

Recent Posts

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Archives

Gory anti-freeze murder case

Reed Business Information on Dutch satirical news site

The blog's first birthday

US, Iran to meet - crude drops $20/bbl

US auto sales collapse in June

Bank of England warns on inflation

Carbon tax pains now in Canada

Why are Brits rubbish at recycling?

European refining margins 'at 4 year low'

US offshore drilling un-banned

A Gore-y energy plan?

Ethanol without the microbes

Ineos goes down the Fischer-Tropsch route to ethanol from municipal waste

US Navy gets heated ACs

Totally recyclable PLA cups for ICIS smoothies