Grace Davison has received the 2009 Frost & Sullivan North American Technology Innovation Award in the field of refinery catalysts.

The new 80,000-bareel-per-day hydrocracker at China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s Huizhou refinery was successfully started up in late 2009. In addition to the production of transportation fuels, the unit will also produce feedstock for the ethylene cracker in the Nanhai petrochemical complex.

Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Co. (SASREF) has recently completed a major upgrade of obsolete automation systems, involving distributed control system, field devices, central control rooms and integration of safeguarding systems with control systems. The export oriented SASREF refinery processes more than 300,000 barrels per day of Arabian Light crude.

Brazil’s government this week decided to slash the mandatory blending of anhydrous ethanol in gasoline from 25% to 20% starting Feb. 1, undercutting soaring sugar-cane prices.

London-based Davy Process Technology officials announced last week they’ve entered into contracts with China-based power producer Datang Energy Chemical Co. Ltd. for a plant to produce synthetic natural gas from coal gasification.

Saudi Aramco officials announced Jan. 13 that they have joined the joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative as a sustaining member.

Adding carbon dioxide capture to a supercritical pulverized coal-fired power plant will impose more than 4¢ per kiloWatt hour extra cost, according to a new study by California-based SRI Consulting.