Air Products holds ribbon-cutting for SMR at Covestro in Texas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products, the leading global hydrogen provider, held a ribbon-cutting event at the Covestro LLC Baytown, Texas, industrial park, where Air Products has invested over USD350 million to build, own and operate a world-scale steam methane reformer (SMR), as per the company's press release.

The SMR is producing hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO) to be supplied at Baytown to Covestro and to other customers linked to Air Products’ Gulf Coast Hydrogen and CO Pipeline Networks.

"Our decades-long relationship with Covestro and its predecessor companies continues to grow with this new facility in Baytown. Our new plant is important to our host site customer Covestro for the carbon monoxide produced, but the facility also offers other benefits to Air Products, other customers, and even the general public. The new SMR strengthens Air Products’ position in the Texas CO market, and it increases the product capacity of our well-established hydrogen pipeline supply network while creating a product necessary to making cleaner burning transportation fuels, which helps to keep the air we breathe cleaner," said Marie Ffolkes, president?Industrial Gases Americas at Air Products.

The SMR and cold box are both located on land leased from Covestro, a world-leading manufacturer of high-tech polymer materials for diverse industries, such as automotive, construction and furniture. The SMR produces approximately 125 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of hydrogen and a world-scale supply of carbon monoxide, a critical raw material for Covestro’s chemical production in Baytown.

"We’re proud to host Air Products and its world-class SMR facility at our Baytown Industrial Park,” said Rod Herrick, vice president, Covestro Baytown Industrial Park. “We’re always exploring new opportunities to increase the reliability and efficiency of our Baytown operations, and today marks an important milestone on that journey. The new SMR facility will strengthen our regional supply network, which in turn allows us to better serve our customers."

Air Products’ new SMR was built through the global hydrogen alliance between Air Products and TechnipFMC, a global leader in subsea onshore/offshore, and surface projects for the energy industry. The plant features the latest technology to maximize energy efficiency and reduce emissions, and includes optimal heat integration, which in turn lowers feedstock consumption. The plant configuration and deployed technologies support Air Products’ overall sustainability goals of reducing energy consumption and emissions.
MRC

Haldia Petrochemical restarts petrochemical complex

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) has brought on-stream its downstream plants at Haldia in the eastern Indian state of west Bengal, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in India informed that the company has resumed operations at the downstream polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) plants, following a turnaround. The plants were shut for maintenance on May 10, 2018. The upstream cracker at the complex was restarted last week.

Located at Haldia in the eastern Indian state of west Bengal, the complex has a 330,000 mt/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant, a 370,000 mt/year HDPE/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) swing plant and a 350,000 mt/year polypropylene plant.

As MRC informed before, in October 2016, HPL reported a massive fire at the petrochemical complex located in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are PE and PP.
MRC

INEOS Oxide to move forward with construction of Ethylene Oxide, Ethylene Oxide Derivatives facility in U.S. Gulf

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS Oxide announced that following a detailed study it is moving forward with the next stage of its project to construct an Ethylene Oxide (EO) and Ethylene Oxide Derivatives (EOD) facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast. It is planned that the asset will be operational in 2022, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Frederick Rulander, COO INEOS Oxide North America, said "This exciting project for INEOS is an important part of our expansion plans in the U.S. It allows us to address a fast-growing EO merchant market as well as our own requirements. The project builds on our experience in Europe as the largest EO and Ethoxylate producer."

INEOS is planning a plant that is initially capable of producing around 270 ktpa (600 million pounds) of EO, with ethoxylate derivative capacity on-site. In addition to supply by rail, the project will allow third-parties to co-locate on site and consume EO by pipeline, as required. A similar approach to our highly successful asset-based in Antwerp.

INEOS is considering several sites on the U.S. Gulf Coast and is well advanced in evaluating competing EO technologies.

Confirmation of the investment location and technology partner are expected later this year.

As MRC informed earlier, INEOS Oxide announces that it is progressing plans to expand Dipropylene Glycol (DPG) capacity at its site in Koln Germany. The company confirmed that it has started the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) and expects to complete the engineering studies during the course of 2018.


MRC

ExxonMobil Singapore butyl and resins plant begins production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil said it has started production of hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin and halobutyl rubber at its integrated manufacturing complex in Singapore, the company’s largest integrated refining and petrochemical complex in the world, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"These new plants enhance the competitiveness and strategic importance of ExxonMobil’s integrated manufacturing facility in Singapore, and are part of the company’s long-term plan for advantaged investments around the world," said John Verity, president of the ExxonMobil Chemical Company. "We remain committed to safe and environmentally-responsible operations as we manufacture products that support better living standards and economic progress for a fast-growing middle class population in Asia Pacific."

ExxonMobil’s new EscorezTM hydrogenated hydrocarbon resins plant will be the world’s largest with a capacity of 90,000 tonnes per year, and will meet long-term demand growth for hot-melt adhesives used in packaging or baby diapers. The new 140,000-tonnes-per-year butyl plant will produce premium halobutyl rubber used by manufacturers for tires that better maintain inflation to improve fuel economy.

Keeping tires properly inflated can help save about a billion gallons (or 38 billion liters) of fuel and result in an estimated emissions reduction of eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 2.5 million cars worldwide.

Construction of the multi-billion dollar expansion project was completed safely and on schedule. The project employed more than 5,500 contract workers at the peak of construction. The plants add 140 jobs to ExxonMobil’s existing workforce of more than 2,500 at its Singapore manufacturing complex. ExxonMobil has more than 4,000 employees in Singapore.

The startup of these two new plants follows ExxonMobil’s earlier acquisition of one of the world’s largest aromatics production facilities in Singapore last year.

"With these latest additions, we are well-positioned to serve customers in key Asian growth markets," said Gan Seow Kee, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. "The expansion helps to further establish Singapore as a key producer of fuels and petrochemical products, particularly products that help our customers improve fuel economy and reduce emissions."

The new plants expand on ExxonMobil’s flexible steam cracking capability in Singapore, which provides a range of feedstocks for upgraded specialty products to meet growing long-term demand in Asia Pacific. The Singapore complex also includes a new cogeneration unit at the refinery, bringing the total cogeneration capacity of the site to over 440 megawatts, which will help reduce emissions and support more efficient use of energy.

As MRC informed before, in December 2016, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) received an order for supply of systems to support a large-scale polyethylene production train for ExxonMobil's Beaumont polyethylene (PE) plant. The new production train is slated to be completed in 2019, and will produce 650,000 tons of PE per year. MHI is currently building a PE plant comprising of 2 units, each with the same scale of production capacity, at ExxonMobil's Mont Belvieu, Texas facility, making this the third order following the completion in 2011 of a PE plant in Singapore.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

PE imports into Belarus decreased by 3% in January-April

MOSCOW (MRC) - Total volume of imports of polyethylene (PE) to Belarus decreased by 3% in the first four months of this year compared to a year earlier and reached 40,100 tonnes. At the same time, local companies reduced only the volume of purchases of linear polyethylene, according to MRC DataScope.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Belarus, imports of polyethylene in the Republic of Belarus decreased to 8,800 tonnes in April 2018 against 11,100 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies have reduced the volume of purchases of all types of polyethylene. In general, total imports of PE reached 40,100 tonnes in the first four months of this year against 41,300 tonnes a year earlier. Demand for high density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) has risen, while the demand for linear polyethylene has seriously declined.

The structure of imports of PE to Belarus for the period under review was as follows.
April imports of LDPE decreased to 3,000 tonnes against 3,300 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies reduced the volume of polyethylene purchases in Russia, while supplies from Azerbaijan grew. Total imports of LDPE in Belarus amounted to about 12,100 tonnes in January-April against 11,100 tonnes year on year.

April import of LLDPE amounted to about 1,500 tonnes against 2,600 tonnes in March, local companies significantly reduced the volume of purchases of Middle Eastern butene polyethylene. Thus, during the period under review, the total imports of linear polyethylene reached the level of 8,500 tonnes, while a year earlier this figure was about 14,600 tonnes.


April imports of HDPE decreased to 4,200 tonnes against 5,200 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies have reduced the volume of polyethylene purchases from Ukrainian and Russian producers. Thus, imports of HDPE amounted to about 19,500 tonnes in the first four months, up 24.4% year on year.


MRC