Plastics Additives & Compounding May/June 2004

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NewsINDUSTRY

Lyondell andMillennium to mergeLyondell Chemical Companyand Millennium Chemicals Inc.are to merge. The transaction willcreate North America's third-largest independent publiclytraded chemical producer withcombined pro forma 2003revenues of more than $11billion and market capitalizationof nearly $4 billion. The deal issubject to customary conditionsincluding approval by bothcompanies' shareholders, and isexpected to close in the thirdquarter of 2004. After the closeof the transaction, the companywill be called Lyondell ChemicalCompany and will beheadquartered in Houston,Texas, USA.The companies say that thetransaction combines two U.S.chemical operations that arewell positioned globally, with

leading positions in propyleneoxide and derivatives, titaniumdioxide and acetyls. In addition,through their Equistar jointventure - a major NorthAmerican producer of ethylene,propylene, polyethylene andaromatics - they have significantleverage to the petrochemicalcycle, providing opportunity forthe combined company'sshareholders to take fulladvantage of the recovery in thepetrochemical cycle. Thecombined company will operatein 16 countries and employabout 10,000 peopleworldwide.Contact:Lyondell Chemical CompanyWebsite: www.lyondell.comMillennium Chemicals Inc.Website: www.millenniumchem.com

Nano-C licences nanotechnology patents Nano-C, Inc., a leader inmanufacturing technologiesused in the high-volumecombustion synthesis andrefining of fullerenes, hasexclusively licenced patentsfrom the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology thatenable it to produce a range ofnanostructured carbonmaterials critical to companiesdeveloping nanotechnologyapplications.The company says that theagreement enables Nano-C toapply its combustion synthesismethod to produce carbonnanotubes for a fraction ofcurrent costs, as well as

fullerenic black -- a materialcomposed of curved latticestructures of incompletefullerenes -- and other relatedcarbon nanostructures. Nano-C adds that until now,fullerenic black forcommercial use was notavailable, and production ofcarbon nanotubes wassignificantly limited due to thehigh production costs ofcurrent synthesis and refiningmethods, making mostdevelopment of commercialnanotechnology applicationsextremely difficult.The Nano-C synthesismethod was invented by Jack

Howard, founder of Nano-Cand MIT ChemicalEngineering ProfessorEmeritus. The method enablesthe scalable, cost-effectiveproduction of nano-structured carbon materialsfor applications such asspeciality and conductivepolymers."We tackled the challenge ofdriving down the cost offullerenes first because thepotential market was moredefined and the demand for ahighly scalable and low costmanufacturing method wasclearly inhibitingcommercialization," says Jack

Howard. "As a result, the costof fullerenes, which wasthousands of dollars perpound when we started Nano-C, are projected to be priced ataround $200 per pound asvolumes increase. Theaddition of these licences willallow us to apply the samescalability and cost savingoptions to nanotubes andother carbon nano materialsthat researchers and businessesworldwide are relying on tobring their own commercialapplications to market."Contact:Nano-CWebsite: www.nano-c.com