Honeywell acquires leading developer Of technologies for natural gas liquids and sulfur recovery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell announced that it has acquired Ortloff Engineers, Ltd., a privately held licensor and industry-leading developer of specialized technologies that drive high returns in natural gas processing and sulfur recovery, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Terms of the acquisition, which closed on Aug. 31, have not been disclosed. There is no change to the Company's guidance for 2018 as a result of the acquisition.

Ortloff will become part of Honeywell UOP's Gas Processing and Hydrogen business, bringing the industry's most advanced expertise in the recovery of high-value natural gas liquids (NGLs) from natural gas streams. Ortloff technologies are specialized to maximize gas separation, providing customers with high operational flexibility and greater returns on their plant investments. Ortloff also specializes in unique technologies for removing sulfur from refinery feedstocks, ensuring greater plant reliability and operability over the refinery lifecycle.

"For decades, Ortloff technology has defined the forefront of gas processing technology. That enables our customers to realize very high returns from their investments in natural gas separation," said John Gugel, president of Honeywell UOP. "This differentiated, highly advanced technology, allows our customers to meet stringent process guarantees, while their operations perform at a best-in-class level. Ortloff also has unmatched expertise in sulfur recovery that tie in extremely well with our gas and refining portfolios."

Honeywell UOP has worked closely with Ortloff since 2002, proving the effectiveness of these technologies with its customer set and establishing a long record of commercial success. This has helped gas processors secure financing for new projects and win long-term supply contracts with customers.

"Ortloff complements our existing offerings perfectly, enabling Honeywell UOP to better meet customer needs for high-recovery NGL extraction plants globally," said Rachelle Goebel, vice president and general manager of Honeywell UOP's Gas Processing and Hydrogen business. "Our joint technology offerings are installed in more than 50 gas plants around the world, allowing our customers to capture the greatest value from their natural gas resources."

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. demand for NGLs is growing by more than 10 percent annually. NGLs and liquefied petroleum gas are in high demand as petrochemical feedstocks used in the production of plastics, automotive products and detergents.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF said that it will launch two new smartphone apps from xarvio digital farming solutions. This will soon allow farmers to monitor the health of their crops and get recommendations for the application and dosage of crop protection products, helping them be more efficient and profitable, as per Worldofchemicals.

The forthcoming launch of the new apps across Asia will provide the region’s growers valuable new tools for improving crop yield and quality via digital technology. The first app, xarvio Scouting, helps farmers regularly inspect their fields and monitor plant health and signs of potential pest infestations using an advanced algorithm for problem identification. Using just a photo from smartphone, xarvio Scouting can help farmers identify weeds, recognize crop diseases, analyze leaf damage and measure the nitrogen uptake of crops. Armed with this information, farmers can more accurately diagnose issues and select the appropriate treatments.

In addition, the xarvio Field Manager app uses imaging and sensor technology from satellites and other data to monitor the status of their fields, and helps farmers understand potential risks for infestations and provides spray timing and dosage suggestions.

The official launch of xarvio Scouting in Asia is planned for later this year, with Field Manager to follow in 2019. The app currently supports crops such as corn, soy, potatoes, with expanded functionality for other crops such as rice and sugarcane coming soon. Asian language support is also planned.

A new addition to BASF’s agricultural solutions portfolio, the xarvio digital farming solutions platform brings together world-class expertise in digital technology, data analysis and artificial intelligence to develop tools that help grower optimize their operations.

"Farmers in Asia are eager to adopt new methods. With policies such as Thailand 4.0 helping to drive changes in the agricultural sector, we are excited to be preparing to launch these new tools. With these digital technologies, growers can improve crop quality and increase yields”, said Andree-Georg Girg, global head commercial operations for digital farming.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced price increases for all polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile styrene copolymer (SAN) grades, as per the company's press release.

Effective September 1, 2018, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below increased as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by EUR85 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR85 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR60 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR60 per metric ton.

As MRC informed before, Trinseo last raised its prices for all PS, ABS and SAN grades on 1 August 2018, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS grades - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech HIPS grades - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR30 per metric ton.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.4 billion in net sales in 2017, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,200 employees.
MRC

MOSOCW (MRC) -- The petroleum industry in India has been on a constant vigil in the state of Kerala throughout the flood crisis to ensure continuous supply of petroleum fuels and LPG, as per Worldofchemicals.

Now the Central petroleum public sector companies have come together to donate Rs 25 crore to the Chief Minister’s relief fund as a helping hand to the state.

On the behalf of the industry, the cheque of Rs 25 Crore was handed over to Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Kerala, by Alphons Kannanthanam, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism, in the presence of V Muraleedharan, Member of Parliament, Prasad K Panicker, executive director (Kochi Refinery), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and representatives of Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.

During the crises period, petroleum industry was able to maintain normal operations of Kochi Refinery, installations and other facilities. Amidst many challenges including the flooding of the water pumping station that supplies water for refinery operations from River Periyar, BPCL was able to run the units of Kochi Refinery to ensure availability of petrol, diesel and LPG.

In addition, Reliance Foundation has also donated Rs 21 crore to the Kerala flood relief and provided aid material worth around Rs 51 crore to help the people affected by the heavy rains.

Reliance Foundation is affiliated with Reliance Industries Limited and one of the largest private foundations in the country.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cosmo Films, a global leader in speciality films for flexible packaging, lamination and labeling applications as well as synthetic paper has introduced BOPP based heat resistant (HR) films, as per the company's press release.

The films have been engineered to work as printing layer replacing BOPET film in multi-layer laminates for various packaging applications in both food and non-food segments.

The new heat resistant films are clear, non-heat sealable and both sides treated films with excellent printability and go mostly for reverse printing. The thermally stable films have excellent slip properties and good machinability and therefore work well on high speed FFS packaging machines. Available in 15, 18, 20 microns; the films are well suited for both adhesive as well as extrusion lamination and offer good lamination bond.

The company has also launched a barrier version of the film. The transparent BOPP based barrier HR film has excellent oxygen barrier properties and offers OTR of less than 100cc/m2/day. The film has good grease resistance that comes in handy for oily snack food packaging; which is a big application area of this film.

Speaking on the development, Mr. Pankaj Poddar, CEO Cosmo Films said, "Homogeneous structures are becoming increasingly preferable as recyclability of multilayer packaging becomes need of the hour. Polypropylene structures or even Polypropylene plus Polyethylene structures are better placed from recyclability perspective because they belong to the same polymer family. Cosmo Films with more than 100 years of collective OPP experience now stands in an advantageous position to develop specialised polypropylene films aimed at a sustainable future".

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2017, Cosmo Films commenced a new line of production of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films. The new line ihas a capacity of 60,000 tpa, which enhanced the company’s overall capacity by 4%.

Established in 1981, Cosmo Films is a global leader in speciality films used for packaging, laminating and labeling applications. Its films offerings include bi-axially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films, cast polypropylene (CPP) films and soon to be offered bi-axially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) films. Today, the company is the largest exporter of BOPP films from India and also a largest producer of thermal laminating films in the world with plant cum distribution centres in the U.S, Korea & Japan. We also have global channel partners in more than 70 countries which helps us service our valued customers across the globe.