EPA chief riles ethanol advocates with call for biofuels policy reform

MOSCOW (MRC) - The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that the recent bankruptcy of a Pennsylvania oil refiner was evidence the nation's biofuel policy needs an overhaul in comments that infuriated biofuels advocates, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the largest oil refiner on the East Coast, filed for bankruptcy last month. The company blamed the cost of complying with the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law requiring refiners to blend corn-based ethanol and other biofuels into their gasoline and diesel.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt said in an interview with Fox News that the bankruptcy largely stemmed from the RFS, and cited the program's requirement that refiners earn or purchase biofuel blending credits called RINs to prove to the EPA that they were meeting their obligations. "We need RIN reform," Pruitt said, pointing out RIN prices had risen in recent years. "It is something I’ve talked to Congress about."

He also said the EPA wanted to take a more conservative approach to setting annual biofuel blending volume requirements, an idea he has floated in the past and which has faced stiff resistance from the ethanol lobby.

"We set volume obligations every November," he said. "Our job should be to take the market and production levels and set volume obligations that are consistent with objective factors – not set inflated or blue-sky types of numbers that create this inflationary pressure on RINs."

Overhauling the RFS, which the George W. Bush administration started to help farmers and reduce U.S. petroleum imports, would require an act of Congress. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, is trying to build consensus for a bill that would alter the RFS to help refiners.

The RFS requires refiners to blend 15 billion gallons (57 billion liters) of ethanol into the nation's fuel each year. Pruitt's comments angered proponents of the biofuels industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has said it has made a technological breakthrough in commissioning a Octomax unit at its Mathura refinery that will help manufacture Euro-VI fuel emission compliant petrol, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"The breakthrough technology developed by IOC's R&D Centre converts C-4 streams from Catalytic Cracker and/or Naphtha Cracker units to high-octane gasoline (petrol) blending stream, thereby enabling compliance with stringent fuel quality norms," a company statement said.

The Octamax Unit has been completed ahead of the targeted schedule and without any cost overrun, IOC said.

"The blending octane number of the sample drawn from the newly commissioned unit was seen to be 118, higher than the guaranteed 108, while meeting all other defined product properties," it said.

IOC said Octamax truly is a 'Make in India' venture where all activities, from concept to development of the technology, preparation of basic design engineering package, erection and commissioning of the unit, have been accomplished through indigenous efforts.

As MRC informed before, in mid-August 2017, IOC completed maintenance at its polypropylene (PP) plant in India following maintenance turnaround. The company had undertaken a planned shutdown at its plant in mid-July 2017.
Located at Panipat in the northern Indian state of Haryana, the PP plant comprising two units has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year each.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BIAXPLEN's Tomsk site (BIAXPLEN T) has put into operation a 5 ktpa metallisation unit for the biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film, as per press release of the producer.

This is the only machine of its kind behind the Urals. It coats the film with an aluminium nanolayer using a sophisticated process of vacuum deposition.

Metallised films have enhanced barrier properties and are used in food packaging, namely for products that require sealed storage and light protection. They also find application as gift wrapping for various household items and flowers, and as material for decorative labels, advertising and printed products. These films preserve their reflective and barrier qualities through printing and heat-sealing, and on top of that they are also recyclable.

The new unit will provide an import substitution product for domestic clients and cater to Siberia's growing demand for quality packaging.

"The launch of the metallisation unit strengthens the competitive advantage of the Tomsk business and adds high value-added products to its range of grades. In addition, the release of Tomsk-manufactured metallised films to the markets of Siberia and neighbouring regions will enable redirecting similar grades produced at SIBUR's other sites to the European part of Russia and the EU countries," said Victor Lushnikov, Executive Director of BIAXPLEN T.

"This is currently BIAXPLEN's most powerful and efficient film metallisation unit. It has an upgraded design based on the knowledge and experience gained at the Company's other production sites. After its launch, we were able to make good time on the ramp-up to regular operations and to the target product quality," said Dimitry Povervit, Head of BIAXPLEN's Production Capacity Upgrade, Improvement and Streamlining function.
MRC

December PE production grew to 153,400 tonnes, whereas this figure reached 139,600 tonnes a month earlier. Russian producers of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) increased their capacity utilisation. Overall PE production reached 1,700,000 tonnes in 2017, which is virtually equal to the previous year's figure. Output of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and LLDPE increased, whereas HDPE production decreased.

The structure of PE output by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

December HDPE production rose to 73,700 tonnes from 63,700 tonnes a month earlier, Stavrolen and Gazprom neftekhim Salavat shut their production capacities for maintenance in November. Russian plants' overall HDPE output reached 898,000 tonnes in 2017, down by 10% year on year.

December LDPE production grew to 61,100 tonnes from 50,100 tonnes in November, Tomskneftekhim increased its output. Overall LDPE production exceeded 661,300 tonnes over the stated period, up by 4% year on year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim, Russia's only LLDPE producer, almost doubled its output, its total LLDPE production exceeded 141,200 tonnes last year, whereas this figure did not exceed 73,700 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC