Honeywell opens India downstream technology hub

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Honeywell has opened a new technology center in India, expanding its technology development capabilities in areas such as refining, petrochemical, low-global-warming and nylon technologies and applications. Honeywell invested USD34 million in the 8,830-square-meter (95,000-square-foot) center.

Honeywell has opened a new technology center in India, the company said on Friday, further expanding its technology development capabilities in areas such as refining, petrochemical, low-global-warming and nylon technologies and applications.

The facility in Gurgaon, India, features pilot plants for developing and demonstrating refining and petrochemical process technology by UOP, part of Honeywell's performance materials and technologies (PMT) strategic business group, the company said.

The center will also perform other product and application development for PMT, including fluorine and nylon technologies.

Honeywell invested USD34 million in the 8,830-square-meter (95,000-square-foot) center.

⌠This new facility will allow Honeywell to put its vast resources to work in collaboration with some of the brightest engineering minds in India, said Rajeev Gautam, CEO of Honeywell?s UOP, who officially opened the center at a ceremony attended by Shri Jaipal Reddy, India's Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, and other dignitaries.

MRC

China's Jinzhou Petchem shuts BR plant as feedstock cost soars

(news.szenergy.biz) -- Jinzhou Petrochemical shut its 30,000 tonnes/year butadiene rubber (BR) plant over the weekend as the company's margins are being eroded by the high cost of feedstock butadiene (BD), a source close to the company said on Monday.

The plant at Jinzhou city in northeastern Liaoning province was taken off line on 18 February, the source said.
No definite restart date was set for the plant, the source said.

Jinzhou Petrochemical is a subsidiary of China's state-owned oil and gas giant PetroChina.
A number of BR producers, including China's Shanghai Gaoqiao, South Korea's LG Chem and Korea Kumho Petrochemical (KKPC), Taiwan's TSRC and Thailand's BST Elastomers, have either shut or cut operating rates at their facilities because of soaring BD prices.



MRC

Fangyuan strarts construction polyamide fiber project

(polyestertime) -- Fangyuan, a synthetic fiber producer based in Zhejiang Province, held a commencement ceremony in early January to mark its new project for 120,000 tons of differential polyamide fiber laying the first stone.

After Zhejiang Fangyuan Synthetic Fiber Co., Ltd. settled down in Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province in 2010, the
company decided to investment another CNY 1.15 billion in constructing this new project.

The project will be constructed in two phases. The first-phase project will include a production line for annual
production of 60,000 tons of polyamide chips which is expected to run into production in June, 2013; the secondphase project will start construction in January of 2014 and will be finished in August of 2015. By then, the
project will have an annual production capacity for 120,000 tons of differential polyamide fiber and turn out a
product output of more than CNY 4.5 billion and a pre-tax profit of CNY 350 million.

MRC

PepsiCo developed 100% plant-based PET bottle

(polyestertime) -- PepsiCo announced it has developed the world's first PepsiCo PET plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully
renewable resources, enabling the company to manufacture a beverage container with a significantly reduced
carbon footprint.PepsiCo's ⌠green bottle is 100 percent recyclable and far surpasses existing industry technologies. The bottle is made from bio-based raw materials, including switch grass, pine bark and corn husks.

In the future, the company expects to broaden the renewable sources used to create the "green" bottle to include
orange peels, potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural byproducts from its foods business. This process further reinforces PepsiCo's "Power of One" advantage by driving a strategic beverage innovation via a foodbased solution.
"This breakthrough innovation is a transformational development for PepsiCo and the beverage industry, and a direct result of our commitment to research and development,"said PepsiCo Chairman and CEO, Indra Nooyi.
"PepsiCo is in a unique position, as one of the world's largest food and beverage businesses, to ultimately source agricultural byproducts from our foods business to manufacture a more environmentally-preferable bottle for our beverages business - a sustainable business model that we believe brings to life the essence of Performance with Purpose."

Combining biological and chemical processes, PepsiCo has identified methods to create a molecular structure that is identical to petroleum-based PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which results in a bottle that looks, feels and protects its product identically to existing PET beverage containers.

PepsiCo will pilot production of the new bottle in 2012. Upon successful completion of the pilot, the company intends to move directly to full-scale commercialization.

MRC

Mogilevkhimvolokno invests EUR20mln in upgrades

(polyestertime) -- Belarus PET polymer and polyester fibres producer Mogilevkhimvolokno is investing more than EUR20mln this year in its continuing project to upgrade and expand its plants in Mogilev.

This will include the launch of a scheme to boost the company's capacity to produce bottle grade PET resin and
equipment installation is already underway to increase its moulding output of PET bottle preforms. The new PET
line is set to raise the firm's PET polymer capacity to over 160,000 tpa. - three times the current output,
according to the company.

Later in the year, Mogilevkhimvolokno will install a new 50,000 tpa plant to produce fatty acid methyl esters for the production of biodiesel engine fuel.

Mogilevkhimvolokno, the chemicals subsidiary of the country's state oil and chemicals group Belneftekhim, is steadily growing its exports which will be boosted further on completion of the current investment programme.
The majority of the company's products are exported to 30 countries around the world, among them Russia,
China, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, the US, Germany and Italy.

MRC