US lawmaker wants EPA use of biofuel waivers investigated

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth asked the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General to investigate why the agency vastly expanded its use of waivers to exempt small refineries from the nation’s biofuel law, reported Reuters.

The request, made in a letter from Duckworth’s office to Acting Inspector Charles Sheehan, follows a May 16 Reuters report that the EPA decided to expand the waiver program months before a 2017 court decision it has often cited to justify the move to the corn lobby.

Oil refiners say the Small Refinery Exemption (SRE) program is crucial to help limit regulatory compliance costs, but the corn industry has said it suspects President Donald Trump’s EPA is using the program as a political tool to help allies in the energy industry at the expense of farmers.

"Recent document disclosures reveal that the EPA misled Members of Congress, industry and the public in regard to the agency’s motivations and justifications for its SRE policy,” the letter stated. “This deception by EPA political appointees may indicate improper motives and conflicts of interest and it warrants a thorough review by the EPA OIG."

The US Renewable Fuel Standard requires refineries to blend billions of gallons of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into their fuel each year, but small facilities that can prove compliance would cause financial hardship can seek waivers.

The Trump administration’s EPA granted 35 such waivers for 2017, up sharply from seven in the final year of the Obama administration - saving the refining industry hundreds of millions of dollars but infuriating the corn lobby, which argues the waivers have threatened demand for ethanol.

Some of the waivers granted by Trump’s EPA have gone to small refineries owned by oil giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp as well a facility owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who had briefly advised Trump on environmental regulation.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland will not be able to get clean oil from a Russian pipeline until refineries have agreed how to divide tainted crude still in the system, reported Reuters with reference to the chief executive of Polish refiner PKN Orlen.

Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were suspended last month due to contamination, sending shockwaves through global oil markets. Russian pipeline operator Transneft is set to compensate buyers for any proven losses.

PKN, fellow Polish refiner Lotos, and German refineries Schwedt and Leuna, will have to agree how much of the tainted oil left in the system they will accept, said PKN Chief Executive Daniel Obajtek.

"It is known that in this pipeline there is a certain amount of contaminated oil ... as a result of this there is a division which must be determined," Obajtek said.

He added PKN’s refineries were safe and working at full capacity.

"There is no danger of a lack of fuel due to the diversification process and other processes which we are implementing. We are safe," Obajtek said, referring to oil PKN has brought in from other sources.

A quarter of Russian export flows has 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, as well as to central Europe and Germany.

The pipeline splits in Belarus into a northern spur to Poland and Germany and a southern leg via Ukraine to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Ukraine’s UkrTransNafta said that hours after resuming transit of Russian oil to the European Union last Monday it suspended flows again after Hungarian oil company MOL informed it of technical problems on the Hungarian side.

UkrTransNafta said it would resume supplies after the Hungarians confirmed they were ready to receive them.

While Russia and other countries are trying to find a way to clean the pipeline, trading companies Vitol and Unipec are sending around 700,000 tonnes of contaminated Russian oil to Asia in an attempt to sell barrels rejected by buyers in Europe, according to trading sources and ship tracking data.

Vitol and Unipec are mainly targeting Chinese independent refiners, or so-called teapots, that have shown an interest in taking the oil which could be mixed with other crudes to make it usable, traders said.

Total and Eni, two major buyers of Russian oil, have stopped payments to Russian firms that sold them contaminated oil and say they will only pay when compensation is agreed, trading sources said.

Last week, Total’s 230,000 barrel-per-day Leuna refinery in Germany, which usually receives Urals crude via Druzhba, declared force majeure on refined product shipments as a result of the contamination.

Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have all said they plan to seek compensation from Russia for the tainted oil.

Meanwhile, Swedish oil refiner Preem said on Monday it had reached a compensation deal with the supplier of Urals it imported via the Baltic sea port of Ust-Luga. Preem did not say who would compensate it, nor how.

As MRC wrote before, clean Russian oil should have reached Czech refiner Unipetrol’s Litvinov plant around May 27, reported Reuters last week with reference to head of the Czech state reserves body Pavel Svagr, who told CTK news agency on Friday. Shipments of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline are being restarted after suspension last month due to contaminated crude in the system.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers, a global business unit of the DowDuPont Specialty Products Division, is launching at RAPID + TCT 2019, new additions to the company’s portfolio of 3D printing materials, including six new Zytel polyamide and Hytrel thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPC-ET) pellets and two new Hytrel filaments, as per Chemengonline.

DuPont’s new pelletized materials for pellet extrusion modeling were developed to help increase 3D manufacturing agility and cost-effectiveness by allowing customers to switch seamlessly from prototyping to small-series, pre-series and mass production—while maintaining similar polymer properties. The new pellets and filaments offer a range of hardnesses, fiber reinforcement options and colors.

The company’s R&D programs manager, Jennifer L. Thompson, Ph.D., will give a technical presentation on these new materials, titled “High Performance Materials for 3D Printing” on Thursday, May 23, at 10:15 a.m. EDT as part of the Material Development and Characterization conference session. Thompson will highlight new engineering materials for industrial use, describe alternative 3D printing methods such as pellet extrusion modeling and discuss tailored testing programs for printing materials.

"As 3D printing capabilities advance beyond traditional prototyping and small-volume production, the industry is looking to scale up and accelerate production while driving down costs,” said Christophe Paulo, strategic marketer, EMEA, DuPont. “By delivering our products as pellets as well as filaments, DuPont gives customers the flexibility to use the same material across different processes. For instance, they can create prototypes with fused layer modeling and final parts with pellet extrusion modeling – or even injection molding for very high volumes – while maintaining consistent properties. The addition of pelletized materials to our offering supports the trend toward mass customization using 3D printing."

At RAPID + TCT, DuPont is exhibiting automotive ducts and structural components, and a variety of other 3D-printed parts that showcase the diversity and capabilities of its Zytel and Hytrel 3D pellets and filaments.

As MRC informed earlier, rising demand for DuPont’s Tyvek nonwoven materials has prompted DuPont Safety and Construction, a business unit of DowDuPont Inc., to invest more than USD400 million to expand capacity for the materials at its facility in Luxembourg. The expansion will include the addition of a new building and third operating line at the site. The new capacity will come on stream in 2021

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company LANXESS will once again have its own stand at the “Fuse Box Meets Dryer – Plastics in E&E applications” conference of the Suddeutsche Kunststoffzentrum, said Britishplastics.

Marc Marbach, head of the E&E sales segment in the LANXESS High Performance Materials business unit, said: “In terms of topics, this year we are concentrating on cost-effective alternatives to polyamide 66 compounds, the application of our structural materials in the battery, powertrain and charging infrastructure of electric vehicles, and our growing range of halogen-free, flame retardant polyamides and PBT."

“We also want to showcases the extensive services that are customised specifically to the needs of the E&E sector and with which we support partners throughout the entire development chain for components.”

The wide range of halogen-free flame-retardant polyamide 6, polyamide 66 and PBT compounds comprises both unreinforced material variants and those featuring up to 45 per cent by weight glass-fibre reinforcement.

For example, these include polyamide 6 compounds with high tracking resistance and high glow-wire resistance on the finished part, which are very well suited to applications in unsupervised operated household appliances, and metal and halide-free product types for components such as high-voltage connectors near the car battery and the electric powertrain that must not corrode over the long term.

In addition to the automotive industry, laser transmission welding is increasingly establishing itself in the E&E sector in series production of complex plastic components.

HPM has therefore expanded its portfolio to include halogen-free flame-retardant glass-fibre reinforced polyamide 6 and polyamide 66 compounds, which are also laser transparent, to meet increased demand for such specialities.

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) -- Shenhua Ningxia coal Industry (SNCG), a subsidiary of Shenhua Group, one of the largest petrochemical producers in China, has undertaken a planned shutdown at its No. 1 & 4 polypropylene (PP) units in early May, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source China informed that the company has shut the units on May 7, 2019 for a maintenance turnaround. The units are expected to remain off-line for around 3 weeks.

Located at Ningxia province of China, the No. 1 & 4 PP units have a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year each.

As MRC informed previously, SNCG brought on-stream its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant on January 19, 2019, following an unplanned outage. The unit remained off-line for around one week owing to technical issues.Located at Ningxia province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. engages in coal mining and washing, coal deep processing, coal chemical industry, electric power, real estate, and other businesses.
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