Appointment of Donald Chen as Chief Executive Officer of ARLANXEO

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ARLANXEO announced the appointment of Donald Chen as new Chief Executive Officer of the leading rubber producer ARLANXEO with effect from May 1, 2019, said the company.

He succeeds Jorge Nogueira, who is retiring after a career spanning nearly 40 years in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

It was written earlier, that in January 2019 Lanxess finished the sale of its remaining 50% stake in the rubber firm Arlanxeo to Saudi Aramco.

The remaining interest of Lanxess in Arlanxeo was transferred to the previous joint venture partner Saudi Aramco. In return, Lanxess received proceeds of around EUR 1.4 bn.

ARLANXEO is a world-leading synthetic rubber company and was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of LANXESS and Saudi Aramco. Since January 1, 2019 ARLANXEO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Braskem, the largest petrochemical company in Latin America, recently entered into an agreement with Siemens to modernize a cogeneration power and steam plant at its Petrochemical Complex in Sao Paulo, Brazil, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Completion of the project is expected in early 2021. The two SGT-600 turbines for this project will feature third-generation dry low emissions (DLE) technology and run on residue gas with high concentrations of hydrogen.
The two SGT-600 turbines for this project will feature third-generation dry low emissions (DLE) technology and run on residue gas with high concentrations of hydrogen.

Siemens will be responsible for implementation and the 15-year operation of an electric and steam cogeneration plant. The plant’s state-of-the-art technology solutions will combine high energy efficiency and extreme operational reliability with low emissions. Project deployment is already underway, whereby Siemens will implement a fully integrated and redundant equipment solution, including two SGT-600 gas turbines, an E-house, as well as an extension of the existing high-voltage substation, three reciprocating compressors, an advanced load-shedding system, and associated software for plant control.

These elements are part of an energy-as-a-service concept, which means that the customer will receive the energy without having to invest in, build, and operate the plant on its own. “This energy-as-a-service contract underscores the value our newly aligned Siemens Gas and Power Operating Company brings to customers, with synergies crossing the entire energy value chain,” said Tim Holt, Chief Operating Officer of Siemens Gas and Power, effective April 1, 2019.

Braskem’s project involves the complete overhaul and technological update of the existing cogeneration plant, which provides steam and power to the petrochemical complex’s cracking unit. The unit has an ethylene production capacity of 700,000 metric tons per year (kta) and produces raw materials for the chemical and plastic sectors. The optimized design leads to an increased efficiency of the ethylene plant. Braskem estimates that the upgrade project will reduce the cracking unit’s water consumption by 11.4 percent and CO2 emissions by 6.3 percent.

"Siemens was uniquely capable of proposing this comprehensive engineering and service solution that will help Braskem meet its sustainability goals and maximize value over the life of the cogeneration plant,” said Dan Simpson, Head of Global Solutions for Siemens Gas and Power, Oil & Gas. “The integrated and redundant design of the facility and use of Siemens equipment, coupled with the adoption of a build, own, and operate business model will result in 100 percent plant availability and reduced energy consumption, both of which are critical to Braskem’s business."

The power output of an SGT-600 turbine is 24 megawatts (MW). For this application, each turbine will provide 19 MW of power and 80 tons per hour (t/h) of steam. In addition, they will feature third-generation dry low emissions (DLE) technology and run on residue gas with high concentrations of hydrogen. The DLE technology will reduce CO2 emissions, and NOx levels from the turbines will be low at just 25 parts per million (ppm). A load shedding system ensures safe operation of the plant by managing all loads depending on the available power supply.

The entire electric and steam cogeneration plant will be engineered, deployed, operated, and maintained by Siemens for a period of 15 years under a long-term contract that includes performance guarantees for reliability, availability, efficiency, costs, maintenance, and emissions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company LANXESS will be showcasing its extensive pigment portfolio for coloring of construction materials together with distributor Harold Scholz & Co. GmbH at the bauma in Munich from April 8 to 14, 2019, said the company.

It is the largest international meeting place and most important multiplier for the industry. Here, LANXESS will showcase its product solutions for sustainable building and its expertise in coloring concrete products. The company’s Inorganic Pigments business unit (IPG) is the world’s largest manufacturer of iron oxides and one of the leading producers of inorganic pigments based on chromium oxides.

For decades, Bayferrox iron oxide pigments have been used reliably in all types of concrete materials. However, in more recent years, there have been many advancements in concrete technology. “New types of concrete such as self-compacting or ultra-high performance concrete are based on complex formulations, the components of which must be perfectly matched to meet requirements. This must also be kept in mind when iron-oxide pigments are used,” says Oliver Fleschentraeger, Market Segment Manager Construction in the Inorganic Pigments (IPG) business unit at LANXESS.

LANXESS has extensive expertise in the production and handling of pigments as well as in the processing in concrete manufacturing. To continue to provide superior support for the technological development of its customers in the future, the company has invested around 1 million Euro in the further modernization of its application laboratories for construction materials at its Krefeld-Uerdingen site in Germany and at Starpointe Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, in the USA.

"The technical service offering comprises extensive analyses regarding the colorimetric and physical pigment characteristics as well as their influence on concrete properties and rheological characteristics in customer-specific applications, which can be simulated under laboratory conditions,” explains Fleschentraeger. “In addition, we collaborate closely with raw material producers, equipment manufacturers, architects and universities in order to provide the best service for our customers," continues Fleschentraeger.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2017, Lanxess announced the expansion of its Additives segment and plans to acquire the phosphorus chemicals business with a US production site from Belgian chemical group Solvay. Both companies signed an agreement to this effect.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with about 19,200 employees in 25 countries. The company is currently represented at 74 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. Through Arlanxeo, the joint venture with Saudi Aramco, Lanxess is also a leading supplier of synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US investigators hope for the first time to enter the site of a massive fuel fire and chemical spill outside Houston to begin the hunt for a cause and to determine whether the operator followed safety regulations, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The blaze, at Mitsui & Co’s Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC) storage facility in Deer Park, Texas, began March 17 and released toxic chemicals into the air and nearby waterways. Shipping along the largest oil port in the United States remained disrupted on Monday, as did operations at two nearby refineries.

Fumes from benzene-containing fuel and fear of another fire have prevented investigators from going into the tank farm’s "hot zone," officials said last Monday. Three tanks holding oils remain to be emptied this week, and responders continue to sop up fuels on the tank farm grounds.

Investigators from the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and Environmental Protection Agency, as well as state and local authorities, plan to enter the site once it is safe.

Access to the site, along the Houston Ship Channel, will help determine what happened and how a fire at one tank holding tens of thousands of barrels of naphtha spread quickly to 10 other giant tanks.

"The escalation of the event, looking at how the fire spread from a single tank to others in the tank battery, is certainly something we’re interested in," said CSB lead investigator Mark Wingard, who arrived in Houston in late March.

Before CSB investigators enter the site, possibly later this week, they will focus on interviewing ITC personnel and witnesses of the fire, and collecting documentation on the facility and its tanks. The CSB’s investigation will also examine the "outside impacts" of the fires, Wingard said.

"There’s huge public interest in this case," he said. "People in this community want to know what happened and what they were exposed to."

Access also could provide officials with information critical to state and local lawsuits accusing the company of improperly releasing tons of volatile organic compounds into the surrounding air and water.

"We need to get to what was the root cause of this event and then begin to understand any aspect of negligence or obstruction that led to the event," Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said in an interview.

In late March, the county filed a lawsuit against ITC seeking to recoup the costs of emergency responders and healthcare clinics set up in response to pollution from the fire. The county has not yet estimated the cost, which Garcia said is "going to be very significant."

An ITC spokeswoman declined to comment, citing pending litigation. In the past, a company official said ITC responded immediately to the fire and had no lack of resources to put out the fire.

Asked how long it would take for investigators to get onto the grounds, ITC Senior Vice President Brent Weber said he hoped it would be days not weeks. "They have been on the site," Weber said last Monday. "They’re staying out of the hot zone right now."

Fumes and clean-up efforts continued to affect shipping for a third week. Twenty-two cargo vessels were able to transit the area near the ITC tank farm on Sunday, the Coast Guard said, between 40 percent and 50 percent of normal.

Another 64 were in a queue waiting to pass last Monday. In total, 118 ships were anchored outside the port, said US Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Derby Flory.

As MRC informed before, Mitsui Chemicals took its naphtha-fed steam cracker off-stream for a maintenance turnaround in mid-June 2018. It remained under maintenance until end-July 2018. Located in Sakai, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 500,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 280,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) will start construction in May on a project to further increase capacity for chloromethanes at its site in Frankfurt, Germany, supporting growing global customer demand, as per the company's press release.

The expansion is expected to be completed in 2020.

The company first increased chloromethanes production in Frankfurt in 2017; the new project will increase annual production capacity of the chloromethane methyl chloride by more than 30%. Methyl chloride is used for the manufacture of various construction materials, silicones, surfactants and pharmaceuticals.

"As well as investing in additional capacity, we will also make substantial upgrades to the facility, which will improve overall supply reliability for our customers and support their growth plans," said Knut Schwalenberg, Managing Director Industrial Chemicals at Nouryon. "We have a leading position in the European chloromethanes market and this is a significant investment to strengthen that."

As MRC reported previously, Nouryon will license its innovative continuous initiator dosing (CiD) technology to Karpatneftekhim, Ukraine’s largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer. Nouryon’s patented CiD technology allows PVC producers to increase reactor output by up to 40%, improve product quality, and make the production process intrinsically safer - all with minimum capital expenditure.
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