Covestro expands global capacity for polyurethane dispersions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Covestro has begun operations at a new production facility for aqueous polyurethane dispersions (PUDs) at its Dormagen site, as per the company's press release.

Along with a current expansion of production in Barcelona, the company is thus boosting its capacities in Europe significantly. In order to meet global demand, Covestro is also building a new facility in China, as well as planning to resume production in the United States and at the same time modernizing and expanding facilities there.

The new capacity is primarily needed to satisfy rising demand from the coatings and adhesives industry: manufacturers remain determined to replace solvent-based products with more sustainable waterborne systems that have equally good properties. Also driving the trend are regulations that require lower emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC).

"With these investments, we are preparing for the continued growing demand for polyurethane dispersions as well as expanding our globally leading position," says Michael Friede, global head of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment at Covestro. "At the same time, thanks to our diversified production, we have the flexibility to meet many different requirements."

This diversity is also the key to the comprehensive line of polyurethane dispersions (PUDs) that Covestro offers. "Our custom-tailored products allow for many applications in very different industries," Michael Friede explains. "In this way, we create opportunities for growth and strengthen our customers’ competitiveness."

As the leading global supplier of PUDs, Covestro also holds a top position in research and development and in process technologies. The company provides technical service and support to customers worldwide.

Polyurethane dispersions can be used in a wide variety of applications. For example, products in the Bayhydrol UH, U and UV series and Bayhytherm are a component of base coats for automotive OEM and refinishing coatings, as well as a component of wood and furniture coatings and long-wearing floor coatings. Adhesives formulated with Dispercoll U are used in the production of furniture and shoes as well as in the automotive industry.

Under the name Impranil, the low-solvent raw materials also play an important role in the production of coated textiles and polyurethane synthetics. PUDs in the Baybond product line are used in the form of glass fiber sizings to produce robust plastic composites (glass-fiber-reinforced plastics). The film formers adhere very well to the fibers, but, in composites with thermoplastics, they are still elastic enough to ensure the necessary stability.

As MRC wrote earlier, in September 2017, German drugs and pesticides group Bayer further reduced its holding in Covestro to 31.5% from 40.9% by selling 19 million shares in the plastics business for a total of EUR1.2 billion (USD1.4 billion).

With 2016 sales of EUR 11.9 billion, Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 15,600 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2016.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — Alfa Laval, a company in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling, has won an order to supply welded heat exchangers to a refinery in the Middle East, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The order has a value of approximately USD6.6 MM. It is booked in the Welded Heat Exchangers business unit of the Energy Division, with deliveries scheduled for 2018.

The Alfa Laval OLMI heat exchangers will be used for cooling applications in different process steps in the refinery.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Construction of a gas chemical complex for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene is going ahead of schedule in the Kiyanly settlement (Balkan region, Turkmenistan), Turkmenistan State News Agency reported, said Trend.

The enterprise was planned to be commissioned in September 2018. "However, construction work is going ahead of schedule," the report said. "More than 5,500 workers are employed in the construction, and with the commissioning of the plant, about 1,300 people will work there."

The project is carried out by the consortium of Toyo Engineering Corporation (Japan), LG and Hyundai (South Korea). The total cost of the project is about USD3.4 billion. Currently, commissioning of the main technological units – the unit for gas separation, ethane cracking, high-density polyethylene and polypropylene, is underway.

The plant will annually process 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas and produce 386,000 tons of polyethylene and 81,000 tons of polypropylene.

"The commissioning of a new production structure in Kiyanly will give impetus to the diversification of petrochemical production by becoming an important contribution to the successful solution of tasks on accelerated industrialization of the national economy," said the report.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Braskem, the American producer of thermoplastic resins, and Danish-based Haldor Topsoe, a company in catalysts and surface science, have signed a technological cooperation agreement to develop a pioneering route to produce monoethylene glycol (MEG) from sugar, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The agreement calls for the construction of a demonstration plant in Denmark, with operation slated to begin in 2019.

MEG is a key component of PET resin, the main man-made raw material used by the textile and packaging industries that is also widely used to make bottles. The project is based on a two-step process developed at Topsoe's labs along with own catalysts, and focuses on the conversion of sugar into MEG at a single industrial unit, which will reduce initial investment in the production and boost the competitiveness of the process.

With the agreement, Braskem wants to expand its portfolio of renewable products to offer new solutions that complement its bio-based polyethylene marketed with the I'm green seal.

The demonstration plant will conduct tests to validate the technology and confirm its technical and economic feasibility, which is a critical step before launching production on an industrial scale and commercial operations. The unit will be flexible to validate the technology in different raw materials such as sucrose, dextrose and second-generation sugars.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — South Korea’s Hanwha Total Petrochemical will use at least four times more LPG feedstock when it completes raising its cracker capacity by 30% to 1.4 MMtpy in 2019, said a top executive, as per Reuters.

Hanwha Total operates a 1.1 MMtpy cracker in Daesan, South Korea, that uses about 100 Mt to 200 Mt of LPG a year, said Sebastien Bariller, a senior vice president in charge of feedstock purchasing for the company on the sidelines of a condensate and naphtha forum in Penang.

The amount of LPG used after the cracker’s expansion would be raised by 700 Mt, he said, with supply source mainly from the United States.

Most crackers in Asia—which produce the fundamental building blocks of plastics such as ethylene and propylene—run on naphtha. Many of the units, though, can replace at least 5% of the naphtha with LPG, and that’s often done when LPG prices are at least USD50/t lower than naphtha.

Hanwha Total, which also owns two condensate splitters, is a joint venture between French oil and gas company Total and the Hanwha Group.

Hanwha Total announced earlier this year that it would invest USD450 MM to expand the Daesan cracker capacity to meet rising petrochemicals demand.
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