Linde and Evonik enter into strategic partnership for membrane-based natural gas processing

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The technology company The Linde Group and the specialty chemicals company Evonik Industries have concluded an exclusive cooperation agreement on the use of membranes for natural gas processing, as per Evonik's press release.

The two companies will jointly promote membrane technology - Evonik on the membrane and polymer side and Linde’s Engineering Division as the system integrator for the complete membrane package units. Evonik’s established membrane technology will serve as the basis. The joint product will be marketed by Linde as the "HISELECT powered by Evonik" high-performance membrane package unit.

Tobias Keller, head of the Adsorption and Membrane Plants Product Line of Linde’s Engineering Division, says: "We’re delighted to be extending our successful collaboration with Evonik to the important gas separation market of natural gas processing. HISELECT membranes are opening up new and innovative options in gas separation, especially in combination with our other established processes. With this, we’re consolidating our position as the world’s leading company for gas separation technologies as well as suppliers of complete separation packages."

At the heart of the collaboration lies Evonik’s polymer-based membrane technology. The specialty chemicals company has developed this technology further for the area of natural gas and has recently commercialized it. It is the key component in Linde’s new HISELECT membrane, which the technology group will market globally in complete membrane package units for onshore gas separation and upgrading plants.

Dr. Axel Kobus, head of the Fibres, Membranes, & Specialties Product Line at Evonik, says: "Our latest membrane technology for upgrading of natural gas significantly expands our existing product range. We have used it to build up an attractive and powerful membrane portfolio for almost the entire gas separation market in less than 10 years, based on our polymer competencies. Our exclusive partnership with Linde in a major natural gas market strengthens our strategic positioning and reputation worldwide."

Linde and Evonik strengthened their collaboration in the area of membrane-based gas separation in 2016. The partnership resulted in the startup of a reference plant for helium upgrading in Mankota (Canada), which is the first ever plant of this kind to combine both separation methods, the membrane and pressure swing adsorption technologies. The plant processes more than 250,000 standard cubic meters of crude gas daily and produces industrial quality helium of 99.999% purity.

The SEPURAN product family includes membranes for upgrading biogas, nitrogen extraction, and upgrading helium and hydrogen. These are produced at Evonik’s site in Schorfling (Austria). The neighboring Evonik site in Lenzing produces the high-performance polymer starting material.

As a leading supplier in international plant construction, Linde’s Engineering Division has already delivered more than 4,000 plants worldwide.

As MRC reported earlier, Evonik Industries AG combined its isophorone chemistry and epoxy curing agents business in the new Crosslinkers Business Line effective July 1, 2017. The newly formed Business Line, headed by Min Chong, is part of the Resource Efficiency Segment,

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – ExxonMobil said that it is progressing a multi-billion dollar project at its integrated manufacturing facility in Singapore to produce higher-value products and expand lubricant base stocks production to meet growing demand, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“Our Singapore facility is one of our largest integrated fuels, lubricant base stocks and chemicals production sites in the world. This investment would move it to the top quartile worldwide in terms of refining competitiveness and increases the site’s competitive advantage from crude cracking,” said Bryan Milton, president of ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Company.

Should the project proceed, a startup is anticipated in 2023. ExxonMobil plans to develop and apply proprietary technologies that will convert lower-value byproducts into a cleaner, higher-value products, including high-quality light and heavy lubricant base stocks. The advanced technology will also allow ExxonMobil to introduce a new, unique high viscosity Group II base stock into the marketplace. Designed to help blenders achieve greater formulation flexibility and simplify global testing, these products will allow customers in Asia-Pacific to cost-effectively blend a wide-range of finished lubricants.

The Singapore refinery expansion project will also result in the production of more clean fuels with lower sulfur content, including high-quality ExxonMobil Marine Fuels that comply with the International Maritime Organization’s 0.5 percent sulfur cap to help customers continue to meet the reduced sulfur limit.

“We’re working to ensure that we can reliably meet long-term customer needs with high-quality base stocks and fuels as demand in the Asia-Pacific region continues to grow,” said Nick Berthiaux, vice president of ExxonMobil Basestocks and Specialties. “By introducing higher-value base stocks in larger volumes, we can meet the needs of an expanded customer base looking to satisfy more stringent industry requirements such as reducing emissions and improving fuel economy.”

The project represents the latest and most significant in a series of recent ExxonMobil investments in base stock production in Singapore. In 2017, ExxonMobil announced it would expand its Singapore refinery to upgrade production of its EHCTM Group II base stocks. Construction began in 2017 and commissioning is expected by early 2019. ExxonMobil also completed an expansion at the refinery in 2015.

“ExxonMobil has operated in Singapore for 125 years, and we continue to expand our business footprint here with strategic investments that will help meet the growing demand for cleaner, high-quality products in the region and the world,” said Gan Seow Kee, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.

Beyond Singapore, ExxonMobil is nearing completion of its Rotterdam, Netherlands hydrocracker expansion project, which is expected to start up by the end of 2018. The Rotterdam refinery, in addition to the Baytown, Texas refinery, will produce EHC 120, and product availability is expected in 2019. Once the Rotterdam expansion is complete, ExxonMobil will be the only global Group I and Group II producer with significant manufacturing assets and global slates of products across three continents.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- W. R. Grace & Co., the leading independent supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, has granted a license which allows PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk. (CAP) to expand its existing UNIPOL PP plant, as per Globenewswire.

The world-scale capacity UNIPOL PP facility, located in Ciwandan, Indonesia, will be expanded to 590 KTA of polypropylene. CAP is the largest integrated petrochemical company in Indonesia and operates the country’s only world-scale size Naphtha Cracker. The CAP plant is strategically located in Banten province, providing convenient access to key customers.

Grace's all gas-phase UNIPOL PP Process Technology provides the most advanced and broadest range of homopolymers, random copolymers, and impact copolymers in the industry. As the simplest of all PP process technologies, without any moving parts inside of the reactor and less equipment than any alternative, its reliable, safe, and stable operation leads to lower capital, operating, and maintenance costs.

Mr. Suryandi, CAP’s Corporate Secretary, said, “The expansion of our plant gives us the opportunity to serve the growing PP market demand in Indonesia. The UNIPOL PP Process Technology gives us the ability to make a broad range of products and remain highly competitive in the region.”

Al Beninati, President of Grace’s Specialty Catalysts business segment, said, “Grace is excited to partner with CAP and enable them to expand their supply of advanced PP products to customers in Indonesia. Combined with our non-phthalate CONSISTA catalysts, the UNIPOL® PP Process Technology will help the Ciwandan facility meet the increasing demand for polypropylene resins in the Indonesian market.”
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel has announced that it has broken ground for a demonstration plant to showcase a more sustainable technology platform for producing ethylene amines and their derivatives from ethylene oxide, as per GV.

Located at its Stenungsund site in Sweden, the facility is said to mark the next step towards commercialisation of the patented technology.

In parallel to the construction, the company said it has already started to explore options for a world-scale manufacturing facility. According to AkzoNobel, the new technology will significantly reduce raw material consumption and improve cost and environmental performance when compared with existing processes. The flexibility of the technology will allow for a selective production of a wide range of end products, enabling the company to expand its amines product offering, said AkzoNobel.

"The demonstration plant is an important step in further maturing the technology, aiming to prove that the technology meets performance expectations on an industrially relevant scale," said Hendrik van Dam, Innovation Project Manager of AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals’ Ethylene Amines business. "It will also produce significant quantities of final product for customer validation."

The range of ethylene amines targeted by the new technology platform includes diethylenetriamine (DETA) and triethylenetetramine (TETA), which are building blocks in a number of growth applications such as epoxy curing, lube oil additives, and oil field chemicals.

"This promising technology is a clear example of the company’s commitment to growth through the introduction of new products and processes that better serve our customers," said Joppe Smit, General Manager of the Ethylene Amines business. "The ability to extend the ethylene oxide-based ethylene amine product portfolio and selectively produce compounds like TETA has always been one of the major opportunities in our industry."

"We strongly believe the newly developed technology has the potential to become a game-changer in the industry. In fact, in parallel to the construction of this demonstration plant we have already started to explore options for a world-scale manufacturing facility," said Werner Fuhrmann, CEO of AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals.

As MRC informed before, in February 2018, India’s fourth largest paint company, Akzo Nobel India Limited commissioned its new powder coatings facility at Thane (near Mumbai, Maharashtra).

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - May production of polymer products in Russia increased by 2% year on year. Total output of these products showed an increase of 3.2% in January - May of this year, according to analysts of the company MRC.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia, May output of unreinforced and uncombined films was 98,900 tonnes against 90,700 tonnes a month earlier. The production of film products increased by 9.8% in the first five months of this year year on year and amounted to 432,900 tonnes.

Last month, the production of plates, sheets and polymer non-porous films was 31,600 tonnes against 27,800 tonnes in April. Thus, January-May output of this product reached 137,000 tonnes, up 2.4% year on year.

May production of plastic bottles and bottles rose to 2.0 million units against 1.747 million units. a month earlier. During the period under review, the total production of these plastic products amounted to about 8.281 million units, which actually corresponds to the indicator of 2017.

May production of plastic windows and door blocks amounted to 2.12 million square meters and 105,000 square meters, respectively, against 1.68 million square meters and 81,700 square meters a month earlier. For the first five months of the year, the total output of this product was 7.49 million square meters and 357,400 square meters, respectively, an increase to the same indicator in 2017 was 13% and 12% respectively.

May of production of plastic pipes, hoses and fittings rose to 52,400 tonnes against 46,300 tonnes a month earlier. January - May output of these products amounted to 205,900 tonnes, up 3.2% year on year.

MRC