PVC Unit of China General Plastics Corp Set to Be on Stream in Feb, Taiwan

(chemmonitor) -- The Taiwan-based company China General Plastics Corp (CGPC) is one of the major PVC resins producers in Taiwan. The company is expected to commence production of PVC at its new unit (Linyuan district) next month.

The PVC unit's capacity reaches 170,000 tonnes annually. Initially, the plant was to go on stream this month, but technical test of the facility did not approve the startup.

Additionally, CGPC runs another PVC plant with the capacity of 180,000 tonnes per year at Toufen site.

China General Plastics Corporation (CGPC) was established in 1964. Total capital exceeded 4.2 billion NT dollars.


CGPC is one of the three largest PVC resin manufacturers in Taiwan, takes an important position in the world in terms of vinyl film production capabilities. To fully integrate from raw material to vinyl film production, our manufacture, services and sales cover the whole spectrum of vinyl product tree, from the first level, i.e. PVC resin, to the second level, i.e. vinyl films and leather, and the third level, i.e. consumer products.

MRC

Fire at Russian Uralkali plant is extinguished

(Uralkali) -- Uralkali media centre informs that an incident took place at Berezniki 4 plant on 23 January 2011.

Around 11am local time fire started at the 6th crystallizer in the vacuum crystallization unit of the hallurgic ore-treatment plant. At the time Uralenergostroi, a contractor of Uralkali implemented the works (including welding and grinding) at the crystallizer. Currently the fire is completely extinguished. There is no danger to the employees of the plant. No one was injured during the incident.

The incident happened at the production line that is under reconstruction and will not impact the Company's annual output. Together with the specialists of Rostekhnadzor and Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters Uralkali will build a commission to inquire into the causes of the incident and evaluate the damages.


Uralkali is one of the world's largest potash producers with a market share of about 20%. The Company's assets consist of 5 mines and 8 ore-treatment mills situated in the towns of Berezniki and Solikamsk (Perm Territory, Russia). Uralkali employs over 23,000 people. Uralkali's shares and GDRs are traded on the LSE, RTS and MICEX.

MRC

Evonik invests in energy efficient upgrading of biogas

(evonik) --Evonik Industries is investing an upper single-digit million Euro amount in a plant producing SEPURAN╝ hollow fiber membrane modules at its Schorfling, Austria, site. In particular, the novel membrane technology facilitates energy efficient upgrading of biogas to biomethane. Biomethane is fed into the public natural gas grid. The new hollow fibre spinning plant will come onstream within 2012 to meet the growing demand on the biogas market.

The novel technology is based on membranes produced from high-performance polymers that in the past have been, for example, processed into fibers and used in hot-gas filtration. At pressures of up to 25 bar, such membranes allow significantly improved separation of carbon dioxide and methane with stable selectivity, in a single process step. The method yields methane of purity higher than 99 percent. Neither energy-intensive recycle streams nor costly downstream processing steps are required, which significantly distinguishes the Evonik method from the technologies currently available on the market.

At present, biogas is still largely converted to electricity at its production site, with a maximum of 40 percent of its energy being utilized by the conversion to power. In such local power generation the waste heat often remains largely unused. When fed into the natural gas grid, however, the raw material can be stored much more efficiently, and more than 90 percent of its energy utilized as power and heat.

MRC

ExxonMobil LDPE plant in Texas has production problems

(ICIS) -- US-based ExxonMobil is having production problems at its 235,000 tonne/year low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant in Beaumont, Texas, sources said on Friday.

A buyer said it received confirmation of the production problems from the company, which said the problems were isolated to an LDPE line that produces primarily fractional melt material.
The buyer said the company indicated it expects to be on allocation through March.
Other sources heard similar reports about the facility, with one source saying it heard the facility was operating at two-thirds capacity.


A spokesperson for ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company shut down a reactor at the Beaumont LDPE plant on 25 December after some high-pressure tubing ruptured, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
By the first week of January, the company said the reactor was operating normally.


MRC

LyondellBasell's Wesseling LDPE production partly shut after blast

(ICIS) -- LyondellBasell's low density polyethylene (LDPE) output at its polyolefins production site in Wesseling nearCologne, Germany, remains partly shut following an explosion over the weekend, the Netherland's-headquartered producer said on Monday.

The blast, which occurred at one of two LDPE plants at the siteon Saturday morning, injured seven workers who were working in the area.
LyondellBasell said that the second LDPE plant and all other units at the site were unaffected and are running normally.

The company were unable to disclose how much of its LPDE capacity has been affected by the explosion. LyondellBasell has a total LDPE production capacity of 430,000 tonne/year at the Wesseling site.


⌠The incident was quickly brought under control by operations and site emergency response and the affected unit was safely shut down, said Andreas Anker, a spokesperson for LyondellBasell.
⌠All other units at the Wesseling plant are not affected by this incident and are running normal, he added.

Anker said the cause of the incident is still unknown and will be fully investigated in collaboration with the local authorities.
The seven workers suffered light injuries and were hospitalised for observation before being released on Saturday, he added.

MRC