Qatar Petroleum, Shell sign MoU for Ras Laffan petchem project

(ICIS) -- Qatar Petroleum and Shell have signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint development of a world-scale mixed feed cracker and petrochemicals complex at Ras Laffan in Qatar, Shell said on Tuesday.

The project would include a monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant with a capacity of up to 1.5m tonnes/year that would use Shell's proprietary OMEGA technology, Shell added.

Also under consideration were other olefin derivative plants that would yield more than 2m tonnes/year of finished products, Shell said.

Qatar Petroleum and Shell are jointly building the Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) and Qatargas 4 LNG facilities at Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar.

MRC

(PRW) -- Mould maker Ryetools has invested in two new EDM machines to replace older machines at its facility in Pickering, Yorkshire. The two new units are being used to manufacture injection moulds used in the medical devices, health and hygiene, food and drink, packaging and automotive sectors among others.

Ryetools was winner of the Toolmaker Supplier Partnership Award in the 2010 Plastics Industry Awards for its work with its customer Plasticum Norwich.

MRC

(PRW) -- Plastic bottle recycler AWS Eco Plastics has rebranded as ECO Plastics, intending the new name and brand identity to mark a new chapter of growth for the business.

Peter Gangsted, chairman of ECO Plastics said: ⌠This announcement is a reflection of the progress that we have made in establishing ECO Plastics as the European market leader over the last five years. But it's also a statement of intent. Having recently reopened our plant, we're already looking at expansion plans that will make us a world leader.

Following its expansion, ECO Plastics will produces 40,000 tonnes of food-grade rPET per year, which it says is ⌠a little under 90% of the domestic total.

MRC

(Packaging world) -- NomaGreen from Nomaco Engineered Foam Solutions is a biodegradable polyethylene packaging foam available in 2-in. thick, low-density PE plank sheets.

NomaGreen is not starch-based or bio-based. It only begins the biodegradation process in a microbe-rich environment, like a landfill, so it meets the performance requirements for packaging without worry about expsure to moisture, heat, light or mechanical stress.

NomaGreen achieves 49% biodegradation in 120 days, according to an independent study.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. plans to invest US$191 mln in a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. The scope of the investment is still unclear. Formosa plans to set up a new plant in Ningbo to produce phenol and acetone, with an initial investment of US$50.4 mln.

MRC