ELIX Polymers announces a new investment in its Tarragona plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The company ELIX Polymers, a thermoplastics manufacturer located in Tarragona's Poligono Sur industrial complex, has announced a new investment amounting to 4 million euros, whose objective is to optimize its ABS powder production facilities, as per the company's press release.

The company expects to begin executing this new project in 2018, which it will continue to develop and consolidate throughout this year and 2019.

ABS powder is used as an intermediate product for producing ABS compounds and as an impact modifier in other thermoplastic compounds. With this new investment plan, ELIX Polymers assures access to this intermediate product for its own production of ABS and ABS compounds, and the company shores up its position in the European market as a supplier of ABS powder.

This investment is framed within the company’s Strategic Plan, which after several years of growth will consolidate ELIX Polymers as a benchmark manufacturer of ABS and ABS compounds in more highly specialised applications and segments.

David Castaneda, Director of Operations and New Business Development at ELIX Polymers, affirmed: "Within the company’s strategic plan, we are seeking to accompany customers as they grow, strengthen our position in key markets and increase our international presence by accessing new market niches and specialities in the NAFTA region and Asia. This investment will also allow us to both optimize our operations and make them more flexible, with the objective of continuing to be a benchmark in the market due to our reliability and custom solutions".

This investment project will provide ELIX Polymers with the best technology in the market. To implement and develop the project, the company is collaborating with the top suppliers of the selected equipment. It will also incorporate equipment that will allow the integration of industry 4.0 in facilities operations.

Over the last two years and following its Strategic Growth Plan, ELIX Polymers has made considerable investments in its facilities and its IT and management systems for the purpose of expanding, positioning itself in the market, and differentiating itself from its competitors by offering a service based on the key factors of flexibility, proximity to customers, proactiveness, global perspective, and custom service solutions.

This new investment in facilities, together with those made over the last two years, demonstrates ELIX Polymers' commitment to its production centre in Tarragona.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2017, leading specialty ABS producer ELIX Polymers announced the development of global grades for healthcare applications.

ELIX Polymers is one of the most important manufacturers of ABS resins and derivatives in Europe, with 40 years of experience in engineering plastics and an installed capacity of 180,000/year from their plant in Tarragona (Spain) to the world. The operation starts in 1975, when the Tarragona ABS and SAN production plant was inaugurated.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil major Total is continuing talks with farmers opposed to its planned La Mede biodiesel refinery and plans to use 50,000 tonnes of French rapeseed to supply the facility, reported Reuters with reference to Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne.

Pouyanne said the launch of the plant, expected in early September, was on schedule despite a call by a farm union to block oil refineries in France over a decision to allow Total to use imported palm oil as a feedstock at La Mede.

FNSEA, France's largest farmers' union called for the nationwide blockade from June 10.

Total has said feedstock for the 500,000 tonnes per year refinery will be made up of around 60 to 70 percent vegetable oil, and around 30 to 40 percent from animal fat, used cooking oil and residue from used palm oil.

The 60 to 70 percent of vegetable oil will include palm oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil and soy oil.

Pouyanne told journalists on the sidelines of a Total shareholder meeting in Paris that the company had identified around 100,000 tonnes of animal fat to be used in place of palm oil, cutting palm oil usage to below 300,000 tonnes.

"I think we have a solid business case for the biorefinery," Pouyanne said, adding Total would continue talks with farmers and had decided to buy 50,000 tonnes of French rapeseed per year for the plant.

"Sincerely, the 50,000 tonnes is not most profitable in the feedstock that will go into the refinery," he said.

France consumes around 3 million tonnes of biodiesel per year and produces about 50 percent of that in France, importing the rest including 750,000 tonnes from southeast Asia and Argentina.

"Our project represents around 500,000 tonnes ... the La Mede refinery project will make France a lot more independent," Pouyanne said.

As MRC wrote earlier, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which had progressively started up in the previous few months.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell has announced that Fujian Zhongjing Petrochemical Co., Ltd. has selected LyondellBasell 5th Generation Spheripol technology, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The polypropylene (PP) process technology will be used for two 600 KTA PP units to be constructed in Fuzhou, China. This represents the world’s largest single PP plant license announced to date.

Mr. WENG Shengjing, Chairman of the Board of Fujian Zhongjing stated, "We selected Spheripol for its proven track record, advantaged economics, and its ability to produce the industry benchmark products that are demanded by our customers".

"The selection of the Spheripol technology by Fujian Zhongjing to build the world’s largest single train polypropylene units shows the confidence the market has in our technologies", said Dan Coombs, Executive Vice President of Global Olefins and Polyolefins and Technology at LyondellBasell. "This again demonstrates LyondellBasell’s leadership in polymer process technologies".

LyondellBasell is a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies with more than 250 polyolefin process licenses. Spheripol is the leading polypropylene process technology with more than 22 million tons of licensed capacity. It combines globally recognized quality PP grades with leading monomer consumption and investment costs to make it the technology of choice.

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2018, Dongming Hengchang Petrochemical selected Spheripol PP technology from LyondellBasell for implementation at a plant in Heze City, Shandong Province, China. The plant will be capable of producing 200,000 mt of PP per year. Grades of PP produced using the Spheripol process are often used to make film for the safe storage of food and plastic pipes for the delivery of drinking water, as well as wastewater removal and sterile syringes in the healthcare sector.

LyondellBasell’s Spheripol PP process technology has more than 22 million tonnes (Mt) of licensed capacity.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Linde presents digital highlights at ACHEMA in Frankfurt: – Virtual reality, smart glasses and digital twins of real-life plants are just three of the digital innovations that The Linde Group’s Engineering Division will be showcasing at ACHEMA 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Digitalisation is fundamentally redefining the plant engineering business. By leveraging our data assets creatively and intelligently, we can offer engineering customers revolutionary new ways to increase operational efficiency and plan more proactively," explains Jurgen Nowicki, Spokesperson for the Board of Directors at Linde’s Engineering Division.

Production processes are increasingly integrating new methods and services that build on the insights gained by networking components with the latest information and communication technologies. Linde already has years of experience in integrating digital technologies into all lines of business. What is new, however, is something typical of the start-up sector – the accelerator process to fast-track new ideas.

Interdisciplinary teams work on digital projects for three months and then quickly transition them to the business portfolio if they prove successful. The team simply drops anything that does not work within this timeframe.

To bundle digitalisation efforts and anchor them throughout the company, Linde set up Digital Base Camps at its sites in Pullach, near Munich, and in Singapore. The camps are home to digital experts who have already gained multiple years of experience working in Linde’s traditional lines of business – complemented by data specialists and software developers. The teams are rounded out with digital experts from technology start-ups and partner universities.

"Ideas for new digital projects often come from employees working in our day-to-day business," says Julien Brunel, Head of Digitalisation at the Linde Engineering Division. “Close collaboration between the digitalisation team and our business team is a key success factor."
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rising demand for DuPont’s Tyvek nonwoven materials has prompted DuPont Safety and Construction, a business unit of DowDuPont Inc., to invest more than USD400 million to expand capacity for the materials at its facility in Luxembourg, as per Plasticsnews.

The expansion will include the addition of a new building and third operating line at the site. The new capacity will come on stream in 2021, said the company.

Global demand for DuPont Tyvek has been climbing steadily across all key end-use markets, Rose Lee, president – DuPont Safety & Construction noted.

According to industry estimates, the global segments for potential Tyvek use total several billion dollars.

Tyvek, a flash-spun nonwoven material made from high density polyethylene, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017. The breathable material is lightweight and durable and resists waterand abrasion. It has found use across diverse industries, including construction, where it is commonly used for building envelope solutions.

Tyvek is also widely used to manufacture protective garments, providing effective protection during health care crises such as the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa; as well as in medical and protective packaging.
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