Revised EU rules will improve safety at chemical plants

(ICIS) -- A newly revised European directive provides opportunities to strengthen chemical plant safety rules, Europe's largest federation of environmental organisations said on Wednesday.

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) supported the Seveso II Directive revision as part of its strategy of pushing for "prevention and precautionary principles rather than the current 'management of risks' approach and the provision of more transparency in regards to these installations", it said.

The European Commission said the drafted Seveso II changes would, if adopted as planned from 1 June 2015, align legislation to changes in EU chemicals law. This would allow for stricter inspection standards and improvements in the level and quality of information available to the public in the event of a chemical plant accident, the Commission added.

The directive is named after the Seveso disaster, caused by an industrial accident in July 1976 at a small chemical manufacturing plant near Milan, Italy. It resulted in residents being exposed to a polychlorinated dibenzodioxin.

MRC

Technical problems at Stavrolen complex (Lukoil group), start-up of new ethylene capacities at Kazanorgsintez and low level of production loading in Salavat: all these factors limited production output during the year.

Total production of HDPE in Russia in 2009 made more than 710 KT. According to MRC analysts' estimates, at the end of the year the Russian companies will have produced more than 800 KT of HDPE. MRC

(Plastemart) -- Attempts are underway by Bayer AG to persuade potential investors to build a chemical plant on company sites in West Virginia using ethane from adjacent shale-gas deposits. The company is in talks to lease or sell unused parts of two sites covering 1,460 acres (590 hectares) for construction of a cracker to convert ethane into ethylene.

Bayer's sites in New Martinsville and Institute, West Virginia, have access to rail, water and road transportation. The Bayer sites are located atop the Marcellus Shale formation, which according to Energy Department estimates is the largest known US gas field. New drilling techniques are boosting production from shale formations, keeping US prices of natural-gas low relative to oil.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- Beijing-based private equity firm Origo Partners plc is investing an additional US$1.7 million in Chinese recycler Niutech Energy Ltd. to develop the company's first plastics recycling plant in China, where it will turn the waste materials into fuel oil.

Niutech plans to set up a joint venture in Fuyang City, Zhejiang province, with an initial capacity to recycle 20,000 tons of plastic and produce 50,000 barrels of fuel oil a year.

Niutech, based in Jinan, Shandong province, manufactures equipment to use pyrolysis to recycle tires and plastics into fuel oil, carbon black, steel wire and non-condensable gas.

Fuyang is one of China's paper recycling hubs, and according to Origo, that local industry produces an estimated 200,000 tons of waste plastic annually.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- Icelandic plastics converter Promens hf has expanded its capacity in the specialist packaging segment with its purchase of the family-run German company Marwin Plastic GmbH.

Hamburg, Germany-based Marwin Plastic, which molds plastic canisters of up to 30 liters, used for products including hazardous goods, will be integrated with Promens' existing plant for similar blow molded containers in Winsen, Germany.

⌠The acquisition adds approximately 2 million euros worth of business to the existing canister business in Winsen and broadens the range of products we can offer our customers, commented Ragnhildur Geirsdottir, president and CEO of Promens group, in a news release.

Extrusion blow molder Promens Winsen is specialized in the production of UN-approved containers for dangerous goods in the chemical-technical industry.

MRC