France allows Total La Mede refinery to partly run on palm oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France has allowed a limited use of palm oil at Total’s new La Mede biofuel refinery, a move that prompted an outcry from French farmers who said most of the palm oil would be imported, reported Reuters.

The environment ministry said in a statement that Total’s newly granted permit for the refinery specified that at least 25 percent of feedstock used to make the biofuel should come from recycled oil. The rest would come from crude vegetable oils, including palm oil.

Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot, a fierce opponent of palm oil use because it is linked to deforestation, also asked that Total use oils meeting sustainability criteria fixed by the European Commission to protect biodiversity and the environment, the ministry said.

French oilseed producers, whose products are used to make biodiesel in France, strongly condemned the decision to allow the use of mostly imported palm oil, which they stressed was also a big component of recycled oils.

"This decision is incomprehensible. Besides its ecological nonsense, it is a slap in the face of our industry," Arnaud Rousseau, head of French Oilseed Producers (FOP) group, said in a statement.

Total said in 2015 it would halt crude refining at the loss-making La Mede site near Marseille and invest 200 million euros (USD236 million) there to create a biorefinery set to produce 500,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year.

French farmers and environmental activists have expressed strong concerns since then that Total would mainly turn to palm oil, accused of causing deforestation and unfair competition against local vegetable oil, to supply the refinery.

Total committed in a statement to use less than 300,000 tonnes of crude palm oil per year at La Mede out of a total processing capacity of 650,000 tonnes, and to use oils from other plants such as rapeseed, sunflower seed and maize (corn).

As MRC wrote before, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which haв progressively started up in the past few months of 2017.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

DSM to expand production of Dyneema fibers in U.S and the Netherlands

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical maker Royal DSM NV has announced plans to increase its global production capacity for its plastics-based fibers and laminates Dyneema products, as per Canplastics.

Strong demand for both Dyneema UD, a unidirectional laminate, and Dyneema-brand fiber is prompting the increase, the company said in a statement.

Dyneema UD is a composite unidirectional laminate that offers energy absorption and enhanced protection. It is available as both a hard and soft ballistic material.

Netherlands-based Royal DSM is investing to install additional new UD technology at its plant in Heerlen, the Netherlands, and its plant in Greenville, N.C., and will also make improvements to existing production lines to expand Dyneema UD and Dyneema fiber capacity.

The global production capacity of Dyneema UD will be increased by more than 20 per cent.

The additional Dyneema UD and Dyneema fiber capacity will become available during 2018 and is due be fully on stream by the first quarter of 2019, Royal DSM said.
MRC

BP chooses hte to test commercial refining catalysts

MOSCOW (MRC) -- hte - the high throughput experimentation company has been selected by BP to evaluate commercial catalysts for both naphtha reforming and hydrocracking applications using high throughput technology under commercially relevant conditions for its refineries around the world, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

BP selected hte for the evaluation study in order to benchmark commercial naphtha reforming and hydrocracking catalysts and compare their performance against incumbent catalysts. The resulting testing program at hte will provide BP with the data to make selections for its upcoming naphtha reforming and hydrocracking catalyst change-outs. The overall aim of both projects is to measure activity, yields, and stability. In naphtha reforming, these performance parameters will be determined at constant octane operation, whereas in hydrocracking, the catalysts will be tested under various process conditions including the evaluation of product qualities. The two projects will start in the third quarter of 2018.

"We selected hte as a partner for our qualification project because of its reputation in independent catalyst testing and its ability to provide experimental services across the major refining processes," says Belma Demirel, Senior Engineer at BP Refining Technology and Engineering in Naperville, USA.

"We are very pleased to be selected as a partner for independent commercial catalyst testing by BP," says Wolfram Stichert, CEO at hte. "Our focus here is to help refineries to be cost-effective in the catalyst selection process. We are looking forward to continuing our reliable and long-lasting partnership with BP."

As MRC reported earlier, British oil and gas company BP will increase investment in the United States after the lowering of tax rates under President Donald Trump, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said in early February 2018.
MRC

Twin leaps forward for Algerian downstream

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Algerian NOC Sonatrach took two major steps forward in early May on the fresh development path promised by the reformist new CEO on his accession last year, said Yourpetrochemicalnews.

The traditionally conservative company acquired its first overseas refining asset and signed a firm deal with an IOC major to proceed with a long-mooted multi-billion dollar petrochemicals project at home.

Meanwhile, the slow-moving drive to improve domestic refining provision also saw progress in the form of a technology supply contract on the planned upgrade of the country’s largest existing plant.

On May 9, Sonatrach signed a deal of undisclosed value to acquire the 175,000 bpd Augusta refinery in Sicily from Esso Italiana, the Italian subsidiary of US super-major ExxonMobil.

Also covered are fuel terminals at Augusta, Palermo and Naples, with associated pipelines. The acquisition is the Algerian firm’s first international downstream investment, cohering with a new overseas expansion policy instigated by incoming CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour when he was appointed to the role in March 2017. The deal is anticipated to close by year-end pending local regulatory approvals.

However, while other major Middle Eastern oil producers have purchased refining assets abroad primarily to secure market share for their crude in regions of fast-growing oil products demand, Sonatrach’s maiden foreign venture remains driven by domestic supply imperatives and the refinery’s closeness to the home market. The facility is envisaged processing Algeria’s Sahara Blend crude and residual products from the Skikda refinery – Algeria’s largest – on the northeast coast into higher-grade fuels for re-export to fill gaps in local provision and thereby reduce the burgeoning bill for product imports.

As Ould Kaddour explained in an interview shortly before the deal, the timing for such acquisitions is opportune for Algiers – as Western majors look to reduce their exposure to the oversupplied European refining sector.
MRC

Sepro names Raul Scheller as managing director in North America

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France-based robotic automation maker Sepro Group has appointed Raul Scheller as its managing director of Sepro operations in North America, as per Canplastics.

"For more than a decade, we have been expanding in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and have enjoyed great success,” Jean-Michel Renaudeau, CEO of Sepro Group, said in a statement. "Now it is time to prepare the organization for the next 10 years and beyond, and Raul Scheller will play a key role."

Scheller has almost 30 years of international business management experience. Before joining Sepro, he served as chief operating officer at Team Technologies, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based contract engineering and manufacturing services firm. Prior to that, he spent 13 years as general manager, Americas for Clariant’s performance packaging business unit; and seven years with a Chicago private equity group, eventually becoming president of its Los Angeles-based injection molding firm.

Scheller will be relocating to the Greater Pittsburgh area in summer 2018.

Sepro America was launched as a joint venture with Conair in 2007, and became a wholly-owned daughter company of Sepro Group in 2008. The company’s Canadian division, Sepro Canada, is headquartered in Montreal.

Sepro manufactures 3, 5, and 6-axis robots for injection molding machines.
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