More sustainability in fertilizer production: thyssenkrupp to build new plant in Poland

MOSCOW (MRC) -- thyssenkrupp’s Industrial Solutions business area has received a new order for the construction of a fertilizer plant in Poland, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The customer for the project is ANWIL, a subsidiary of PKN ORLEN, one of the largest oil industry corporations in Central and Eastern Europe from Poland. The new facilities for the production of 1,265 metric tons of nitric acid and 1,200 tons of ammonium nitrate per day will be located in Wloclawek, some 200 km northwest of Warsaw, at an existing chemical and fertilizer complex. thyssenkrupp’s patented EnviNOx process will be used to remove green house gases from nitric acid production.

"More than ever, the chemical industry faces the challenge of growing profitably and at the same time protecting the climate. With the realization of this new, low-emission plant in Poland, ANWIL and thyssenkrupp are making an important contribution,” says Sami Pelkonen, CEO Chemical & Process Technologies at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions. “We look forward to our further cooperation and are proud to bring decades of plant engineering and process know-how into the project."

The order includes the provision of technology licenses and the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the new facilities. The contract value is in the lower three-digit million euro range. The project is a substantial part of a larger investment program implemented by ORLEN to expand its fertilizer portfolio and open up new value chains in the petrochemical industry. By 2022, ORLEN aims to increase its fertilizer production capacity in Wloclawek by 50 percent to 1.461 million tons per year to meet growing demand.

“With thyssenkrupp, we have found a reliable partner for our investment project. The company combines extensive plant engineering experience with efficient technologies that meet and exceed the highest environmental standards. Together, we will drive growth and sustainable development of the chemical industry in Poland”, said Agnieszka Zyro, CEO at ANWIL S.A., at the signing ceremony.

Combined removal of N2O and NOx greenhouse gases with EnviNOx

thyssenkrupp's patented, world-leading EnviNOx technology for greenhouse gas reduction will be utilized to treat tail gases from nitric acid production. The process converts environmentally harmful laughing gas (N2O) and other nitrogen oxides into nitrogen, oxygen and water with the aid of a special catalyst. This will reduce the annual emissions of the new plant by around 3,200 tons of laughing gas and 1,000 tons of nitrogen oxide per year.

Since the global warming potential of laughing gas is estimated to be around 310 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2), this corresponds to a CO2 reduction of about 1 million tons CO2 per annum. Today, more than 20 EnviNOx systems are already contributing to a more climate-friendly production of nitric acid worldwide, while more are under construction.

As MRC informed earlier, Thyssenkrupp AG said Monday that it has received a large order from Egypt's El Nasr Company for Intermediate Chemicals to design and build a fertilizer complex. The German engineering group said the order value is several hundred million euros. Thyssenkrupp said the new complex will be built around 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Cairo and should begin operations in 2022. The complex is expected to be operational in 2022 and will have an annual production of up to 440,000 tonnes of ammonia, 380,000 tonnes of urea and 300,000 tonnes of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN).
MRC

Private refiners in China ramp up breaking records for throughput

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's crude oil throughput rose in April to match record daily levels, government data showed on Wednesday, buoyed by growing production at private refiners including a mammoth new facility in the country's northeast, reported Reuters.

Refinery runs climbed 5% from the year before to 52.1 million tonnes, or 12.68 million barrels per day (bpd), matching record daily levels racked up earlier this year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Privately owned Hengli Petrochemical Co Ltd started trial runs around five months ago at its 400,000 bpd plant in northeast China, with production expected to hit full capacity later this month.

"Throughput at Hengli and ... teapot refineries increased significantly," said Wang Zhao, head of crude oil research at Sublime Information Co. Independent refiners in China are often referred to as 'teapots'.

The return of refineries after maintenance contributed to the higher runs in April, Wang added.

The robust crude runs, which stood in contrast to slower-than-expected growth in China's industrial output last month, also come amid mounting efforts by state majors to export refined products to offset domestic gluts.

PetroChina shipped gasoline from domestic refiners to Nigeria for the first time in the first quarter.

For the first four months of 2019, crude runs were up 4.7% from a year earlier at 207.47 million tonnes, or 12.62 million bpd, the data showed.

Crude oil output stood at 15.71 million tonnes, or 3.82 million bpd, down from 3.89 million bpd in March.

Natural gas output came in at 14.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) in April, up 7.9% from the same month a year earlier, but the lowest level since October 2018 due to slower demand towards summer.
MRC

Total halts German refinery units for checks on contaminated Russian crude

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil and gas major Total said on Friday that it had suspended operations at some units of the 230,000 barrel-per-day Leuna refinery in Germany for technical checks following the prolonged situation of contaminated Russian crude supply, reported Reuters.

Total said it was carrying out the checks to manage any long-term supply complications due to the contaminated Russian crude.

"It is expected that operations will resume as early as Saturday, using alternative supply via Gdansk (in Poland)," the company said in a statement.

"With the continuing problems in connection with the Druzhba pipeline, the capacity of the refinery will remain limited," it said, adding that efforts would be made to limit the effect on the supply of petrol, diesel and heating oil to clients.

Total declined to give details of the units that were halted. Industry monitor Genscape said earlier on Friday that the 112,000 bpd vacuum distillation unit at the refinery was one of the units that was halted.

Russia's oil export flows have been disrupted since April when high levels of organic chloride were found in crude pumped via the Druzhba pipeline to the Baltic port of Ust-Luga and other European countries.

As MRC informed earlier, in April 2015, Total announced that its proposed new ethane cracker near its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, is being designed to have a capacity of 1 million tpy.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

Wison completes MTO, butadiene project for Nanjing Chengzhi Yongqing in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wison Engineering has completed construction on Nanjing Chengzhi Yongqing Energy Technology Co.'s new methanol-to-olefins (MTO) plant and butene-to-butadiene unit in Nanjing, China, as per Apic-online.

The 600,000-t/y MTO facility utilizes Honeywell UOP's advanced reaction technology and Wison's proprietary olefin separation technology.

The 100,000-t/y butadiene plant is based on Wison's proprietary Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Butene to Butadiene (ODH) technology. Cost of the project was not available.

Wison was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project in late 2017. The project was completed and delivered within 18 months.

This is Wison's "first" commercial project for integrating ODH technology with MTO technologies, and the "second" such application in the world, Wison noted.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2018, the global leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) service provider Wison Engineering Services Co. Ltd. announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Wison Engineering Ltd. has signed an EPC contract, approximately USD150 million, with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) for a Utilities Park & Pilot Plants project. The park and plants project is part of the ongoing SABIC Technology Center (STC) expansion plan in Jubail, marking SABIC's biggest investment in innovation, globally. Once the expansion plan completed, the fully integrated complex will be the biggest of SABIC's 21 global technology and innovation centers spread across different regions.
MRC

Lotte Chemical US ethane cracker to start commercial operations in May

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Corp said that its US ethane cracker in Louisiana is expected to commence commercial operations within May, reported Reuters.

With the commencement of the plant, the South Korean company hopes to boost its cost competitiveness by diversifying away from mainly naphtha as a feedstock to make ethylene, a key ingredient for petrochemical products, it said in a statement.

Lotte Chemical’s US ethane cracker is a joint venture with Axiall Corp, which is now merged with Westlake Corp. Lotte owns an 88 percent in the plant, while Westlake Corp holds the remainder.

South Korean petrochemicals makers including Lotte Chemical, typically use naphtha derived from crude oil as a feedstock to make ethylene. Ethane crackers use ethane gas as a feedstock and can take advantage of cheap U.S. shale gas.

Lotte’s ethane cracker in the United States can produce 1 million tonnes of ethylene a year, taking Lotte Chemical’s global ethylene output capacity to 4.5 million tonnes, the statement added.

At home, Lotte Chemical runs two naphtha crackers which have a combined ethylene production capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per year.

As MRC informed before, in May 2018, South Korea’s major refiner Hyundai Oilbank Co. and petrochemical firm Lotte Chemical Corp. joined hands to build a heavy-feed petrochemical complex (HPC) at a combined investment of KRW 2.7 trillion (USD 2.5 billion).

South Korean Lotte Chemical is a global petrochemical company, established in 1976. It produces low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), polypropylene (PP), functional resins, styrene monomer (SM), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), etc.
MRC