SK Energy upgrades polymer production

ULSAN (JoongAng Daily) -- SK Energy, the nation's biggest oil refiner, is building the world's first naphtha-cracking factory using advanced catalytic olefin, or ACO, technology, in the southeastern city of Ulsan, the company said yesterday. The factory is expected to start operating in October.

A naphtha-cracking factory produces basic petrochemical materials using naphtha refined from crude oil. The pyrolysing process in the past consumed a lot of energy as it needed high heat, up to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit). SK Energy said it had developed the technology to use a catalyst that lowers the temperature to under 700 degrees Celsius, however.

Older technology usually produced ethylene and a small amount of propylene, for which demand is growing globally. Using the ACO technology, the plant is able to produce equal amounts of ethylene and propylene. Polyethylene, combined with ethylene, is used in making vinyl, while polyethylene mixed with propylene is used for plastic containers.

SK Energy is planning to export the technology overseas at a price of $20 million in royalty payments per plant. It already signed a strategic partnership with KBR, a United States-based petrochemical engineering company, in 2007.

The company plans to build a small factory with a 30 billion won ($25 million) budget and plans to expand its facilities. Analysts predict that several trillion won in investments will be made.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- A modified polyphenylene oxide (PPO) has been applied in wire harness insulation to create a product that's inherently flame retardant (FR) and free of environmentally harmful heavy metals. Nissei Eco Co. Ltd. codeveloped the insulation, called ECO-01, with Sabic Innovative Plastics (Pittsfield, MA), utilizing that company's Flexible Noryl material. Sabic IP has positioned Noryl as an alternative for OEMs looking to move away from wire-jacketing stalwart polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Selling points, according to Sabic IP, include the fact that Noryl is nonhalogenated, helping customers meet global environmental requirements that increasingly target that chemical. Sabic IP also reports that Noryl outperforms PVC in wear resistance. Using the JASO-D-608-92 abrasion test, Nissei Eco found that Noryl has higher abrasion resistance than vinyl. Sabic IP says Noryl's high-temperature performance, which satisfies UL105C, does not require additional secondary steps like cross linking through electron beam radiation, a process required for flame-retardant polyethylene (PE). Nissei Eco says that ECO-01 tubing for wire harnesses has already been specified by several Japanese home appliance manufacturers. The company is working to gain specifications for the product around the globe.

MRCMRC Reference

Sabic. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 0.2%;
PP - 0.4%;
PS - 0.2%.

Annual sales growth in Russia over the last 5 years:
PE - 33%;
PP - 62%.

(plastemart) -- Ineos was unconfirmed to have declared an ethylene force majeure and put its ethylene buyers on 80% allocation due to delays in restarting its Chocolate Bayou, cracker. Caused of the delay is unclear. Ineos initially took the steam cracker offline for a planned maintenance in early March.

As reported before (see mrcplast.com on May 11), force majeure for polystyrene was declared in Wingles, France, due to barge strike.

MRCMRC Reference

Ineos is a petrochemical group.
In Russia Ineos's interests are represented by Ineos Polyolefins and IneosChlorVinyls.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 4.5%;

polyethylene - 1.9%
(HDPE - 2.8%, LDPE - 1.2%);
polypropylene - 1.4%
(PP-random - 22.1%, PP-impact - 2.0%);
polystyrene - 0.9%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
pipe extrusion;
film extrusion;
injection molding.

KINGSPORT (Eastman) -- Eastman Chemical Company is increasing prices on the following products effective June 1: Eastman PET, Eastman AQUA PET, ParaStar PET, and Heatwave Polymer: Off-list price increase of $US 0.03/lb ($US 0.066/kg).

MRC

(plastemart) -- BP Plc plans to shut a 1.05 mln tpa ethylene plant for maintenance at its Gelsenkirchen chemicals site. Unconfirmed reports state that one of two cracking units will be halted for the work in September and October. The plant is integrated with BP's adjacent 266,000 bpd refinery that supplies feedstock.

MRC