ELIX Polymers to highlight latest material innovations for key markets at Fakuma 2018

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The next Fakuma show for the plastics processing industry is just around the corner, and materials supplier ELIX Polymers will present its innovations, as per the company's press release.

"These innovations are the result of our strong emphasis on product differentiation and some significant investments in R&D that make us stand out from suppliers of commodity ABS products," says Antonio Prunera, Head of Quality and Business Development.

Products to be featured at Fakuma 2018 include:

- plating grades for high-visibility automotive parts and for the sanitary industry;
- high-heat ABS for demanding automotive applications;
- specialty grades for consumer goods that benefit from such features as chemical resistance, laser-markability and very high flow;
- special ABS grades optimized for 3D printing using FFF/FDM technologies.

Making their debut at the show will be CC (Chemical Compliance) grades for applications where specifiers are increasingly concerned about the regulatory aspects of materials from which products are made. These include as toys, cosmetic containers, and products that come into contact with food. Reinforced standards applied during production of CC grades will enable ELIX to offer additional guarantees on regulatory compliance during the lifetime of finished products. The CC line comes with a package of extended services that will help OEMs carry out their product verification and stewardship processes.

ELIX Polymers is a specialist in the production of ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) and SAN (styrene-acrylonitrile), and high-performance compounds blends based on these polymers, as well as polymer modifiers. It has major customers all around the world.

As MRC reported before, in June 2018, ELIX Polymers announced a new investment amounting to 4 million euros, whose objective is to optimize its ABS powder production facilities.

Located in a major chemical park in Tarragona, Spain, ELIX Polymers operates one of the largest ABS production sites in Europe. The operation starts in 1975, when the Tarragona ABS and SAN production plant was inaugurated. Its operations include five ABS compounding lines producing over 40 specialty grades, with more than 300 colour options. The company is also becoming more global in its operations: in late 2016, it took an important step in improving its services to North American customers when it opened a central warehouse for the region in New Jersey and reinforced the team at its main office in Florida. In China meanwhile, distribution partner Yixin Resources Co., which also provides technical and logistic services for customers, is helping ELIX Polymers gain new business with major local and international companies.
MRC

Lubrizol appoints Apta as distributor in Brazil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lubrizol has announced the selection of Apta, Vinmar Group, as new distributor for its TPU portfolio throughout Brazil, as per GV.

Apta has warehouses and office facilities strategically located in Sao Leopoldo-RS, Joinville-SC and Sao Paulo-SP. The agreement, which took effect on 17 April 2018, includes the Estane, Isoplast, Pearlbond, Pearlstick, Pearlcoat, Pearlthane, and Carbo-Rite product lines.

As MRC informed earlier, in February 2018, Lubrizol launched two thermoplastic polyurethane resins for hot melt adhesives (HMAs). The products belong to the plasticiser-free Pearlbond 300 TPU series that stands out for its low activation temperatures and good bonding properties to various substrates.

The Lubrizol Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an innovative specialty chemical company that apart from its production develops and supplies technologies to customers in the global transportation, industrial and consumer markets. Lubrizol is providing innovative solutions for its customers high-performance application needs and remains committed to ongoing investment in its CPVC capabilities that support future growth. With headquarters in Wickliffe, Ohio, Lubrizol owns and operates manufacturing facilities in 17 countries, as well as sales and technical offices around the world. Founded in 1928, Lubrizol has approximately 8,000 employees worldwide.
MRC

SENER designs an innovative LNG unit for Panfido

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SENER has signed a contract with the owner Rimorchiatori Riuniti Panfido & C.s.r.l for delivering the basic engineering and technical assistance in the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) SBBT unit, which will operate in Italy and the Adriatic, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Panfido is one of the most important tug and barge owners in Europe, with 130 years of experience in marine services. This project is co-funded by the European Union through the Poseidon MED II program.

This new contract consolidates SENER’s role as a pioneer in the design of innovative LNG marine technology units. In this regard, the SBBT unit’s design is a combination of an LNG fueled tractor tug (powered unit) and an LNG bunkering non-propelled pontoon of 4,000 m3 (cargo unit).

The tug will be designed and constructed as a dual fuel driven, towing, escorting, rescue, supply and salvage tug, propelled by Voith and with 65 tons of bollard pull. For its part, the pontoon will have a storage capacity of 4,000 m3 of LNG and 1,000 m3 of marine diesel oil (MDO), and it will be used for bunkering service. Among other benefits, SENER’s innovative design focuses on wave signature and ballast water management.

SENER has announced this new contract in the framework of the 2018 edition of the Gastech exhibition and conference that takes place in Barcelona (Spain) from September 17 to 20. The company is showing at Gastech (in its booth n? G175) its floating solutions in LNG, where SENER is able to offer an integral project of the entire LNG value chain using its own technology and engineering.

With more than €2.5 billion in LNG contracts and references as EPC contractor such as Sagunto in Spain, Dunkirk in France, Zeebrugge in Belgium or Gate terminal in the Netherlands. SENER has become a leader in the LNG sector, applying technologies developed in-house.

Besides, SENER has developed a comprehensive project portfolio in marine and naval architecture since its foundation, in 1956, as a marine engineering company. On this regard, SENER has developed its own bunkering vessel with an innovative design using its own CAD/CAM/CAE shipbuilding software FORAN, which is one of the advanced solutions presented at Gastech.
MRC

China sets tariff on U.S. LNG just as exports ramp up

MOSCOW (MRC) - China has set a 10 percent tariff on imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas just as trade of the super-chilled fuel between the two nations started to ramp up and exports from new terminals on the U.S. Gulf Coast are poised to begin, Reuters.

Beijing announced on Tuesday it would tax thousands of U.S. products worth USD60 billion in retaliation for tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump as the trade war between them escalated.

China became the world’s second-largest importer of LNG last year, behind Japan and ahead of South Korea, driven by a push to convert to cleaner gas from coal generation energy.

At the same time, the United States is poised to become a major exporter with the majority of LNG supply growth in coming years from new terminals being planned or built now.

China imported 1.6 million tonnes of the 14.9 million tonnes of LNG that has been exported from the United States so far this year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Analysts and traders have said that although China is a huge buyer of LNG especially in the run-up to and during winter, it should easily find supplies from other large exporters such as Qatar and Australia.

State-owned Qatargas said this month it had signed a 22-year deal to supply a unit of PetroChina with 3.4 million tonnes a year.

For U.S. companies developing LNG export terminals such as Cheniere Energy, Sempra and Kinder Morgan , the tariff casts doubt over their projects’ final investment decisions (FIDs), which trigger construction of facilities.

"It’s a problem for Cheniere as it makes their LNG uncompetitive in China," Noel Tomnay, vice president for gas and LNG consulting at Wood Mackenzie, told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry event in Barcelona, Spain.

"But the biggest problem is for all those U.S. LNG projects trying to get FID. China would be the biggest market for all of them. While these tariffs last, it’s unlikely they can take off. That’s a potential opportunity for non-U.S. projects (e.g. Canada) to go ahead."

Four new U.S. terminals and one extension will come onstream in stages over the next two years. Once they run at capacity, they will constitute 60 percent of all new supplies expected to be added to the global market by 2023.
MRC

John Crane launches innovative Gas Seal technology to significantly reduce methane emissions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- John Crane, a global leader in rotating equipment solutions, today launched its latest gas seal technology designed to be retrofitted into centrifugal compressors with oil seals to significantly lower operating costs, improve reliability and reduce methane emissions by up to 95 percent, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Aura™ 120 Narrow Section gas seal enables the latest John Crane gas seal technology to be fitted into a larger percentage of older equipment, bringing with it the benefits of non-contacting design. Gas seal technology eliminates the need for oil lubrication associated with contacting seals and the resulting need to address harmful emissions entrapped in the oil. In the natural gas sector, centrifugal compressors equipped with oil seal technology are generally acknowledged as the leading source of methane emissions offshore and the fourth most significant onshore.

"Our expertise in this area has recently led to the development of a lifecycle cost calculator (LCC) that provides a full analysis of the economic case for retrofit from oil seals to gas seals against the next best alternatives," said John Crane Global Product Manager Paul Hosking. "Gas seal technology is proven to reduce the level of damaging methane emissions that are vented or flared into the atmosphere."

John Crane’s LCC takes operational data from rotating equipment and compares the total lifecycle costs of the oil seal operation?including emissions?with the option of capturing the methane and routing to a flare device, capturing the methane and routing for another purpose, and retrofitting to gas seal technology.

John Crane identified four typical scenarios where oil seals are still in use and examined the economic benefits. In all scenarios, converting to gas seal technology provides economic payback, particularly when there is no spare compression and the operator owns the natural gas flowing through the compressor.

Earlier this year, John Crane was invited by a United Nations (UN) panel to showcase how the firm’s technology is reducing methane emissions in sectors of the natural gas industry. The panel is examining the critical role gas will play in achieving the international organization’s Sustainable Development Goals.
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