Sepro and Fanuc partner to integrate robots, injection molding machines

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France-based robots and industrial automation maker Sepro Group is partnering with Fanuc Corp. – which is also headquartered in France – to expand the Cartesian robot technology available in Fanuc’s injection molding machines (IMMs), as per Canplastics.

Fanuc’s all-electric Roboshot IMM can now be equipped with Cartesian robots made by Sepro Group and integrated into the molding machine controls via Sepro Visual control. “This partnership aims to meet increasing demand for robot/IMM packages and will allow Fanuc to benefit from Sepro’s know-how in the fields of Cartesian robots especially designed for the plastics industry,” Sepro and Fanuc said in a joint statement.

Sepro’s partnership with Fanuc is the twelfth of its kind for Sepro.

"The Visual system delivers one unique control platform that is open to different technologies and open to integration with injection molding machines,” the statement said. “Visual is an easy-to-use robot control, which was developed…especially for injection molding. It makes easy, open integration possible with features and capabilities like an open system [that is] transparent to users and to different robot technologies; simplified programming and operation; and is common to Sepro’s entire portfolio."

In May 2019, Sepro Group appointed Raul Scheller as its managing director of Sepro operations in North America.

The Sepro Group designs and integrates 3-axis, 5-axis and 6 axis robots with a unique native control platform to equip injection molding machines of all brands.
MRC

BASF develops process for climate-friendly methanol

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The production processes of the most important basic chemicals are responsible for around 70 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the chemical industry, said the company.

BASF experts are working intensely on new technologies to substantially reduce emissions in these processes. Partial aspects of the new CO 2 emission-free methanol process were tested in a pilot plant at BASF subsidiary hte GmbH in Heidelberg . Project manager Maximilian Vicari and hte expert dr. Nakul Thakar are pleased with the challenges that have been solved, such as activating the catalytic converter and operating the system.

Partial aspects of the new CO 2 emission-free methanol process were tested in a pilot plant at BASF subsidiary hte GmbH in Heidelberg . Project manager Maximilian Vicari and hte expert dr. Nakul Thakar are pleased with the challenges that have been solved, such as activating the catalytic converter and operating the system.
The company has bundled all of this work under the roof of its ambitious Carbon Management Program. One of the first visible successes in this area has been achieved by a project team which has applied to patent a process to produce methanol without any greenhouse gas emissions. If it can be successfully implemented at an industrial scale, the entire production process – from syngas production to pure methanol – will no longer release any carbon dioxide emissions.

Typically, methanol is made from syngas, which until now has been primarily obtained from natural gas via a combination of steam and autothermal reforming. Using special catalysts, this can then be turned into crude methanol, which can be further processed after purification. In the new BASF process, the syngas is generated by partial oxidation of natural gas, which does not cause any carbon dioxide emissions and has proven to be advantageous in a study jointly conducted with Linde Engineering. The subsequent process steps – methanol synthesis and distillation – can be carried out nearly unchanged.

Ingenuity was required to address the merging and processing of the waste gas streams that arise during methanol synthesis and distillation and which cannot be avoided even with optimal process management. These waste gas streams consisting of methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen are incinerated in an Oxyfuel process with pure oxygen. This results in a small volume of flue gas with a maximum carbon dioxide content. The flue gas is then scrubbed using BASF’s proven OASE process for full recovery of the carbon dioxide.

To ensure that the carbon contained in the carbon dioxide is not lost and that it can be used again for methanol synthesis, the captured carbon dioxide is fed back into the beginning of the process. This does, however, require additional hydrogen, which BASF also aims to produce without any carbon dioxide emissions, for example, via methane pyrolysis, which is also being developed in the Carbon Management research program.

“We are optimistic that our climate-friendly approach will better adapt methanol synthesis to the requirements of the 21st century,” said project manager Dr. Maximilian Vicari from BASF’s Intermediates division. “Nearly 100 years after the first industrial-scale production of this important basic chemical using BASF’s high-pressure process, we are now taking a leading role in writing the newest chapter in the history of methanol.” Vicari expects it will be around 10 years before this new process is carried out in an industrial-scale plant.

The basic chemical methanol is an important starting material for many products in different BASF value chains. Derived products such as formaldehyde, acetic acid and methylamines are very important in terms of volume. Other important derivatives include methyl tert-butyl ether, methyl methacrylate, polyalcohols and silicones. Methanol also serves as an energy supplier and can be used as a raw material for chemical conversion into other fuels or fuel additives.

As MRC informed before, in December 2016, AkzoNobel finalized the acquisition of BASF’s global Industrial Coatings business, which supplies a range of products for industries including construction, domestic appliances, wind energy and commercial transport, strengthening its position as the global number one supplier in coil coatings.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of about EUR58 billion in 2016.
MRC

Stavrolen plans to stop the production of polyethylene and polypropylene in September

MOSCOW (MRC) - Stavrolen, a major producer of polyolefins in Russia, plans to shut production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) for a long turnaround from 1 September, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report with reference to the producer's customers.

According to the company's customers, Stavrolen has planned a long-term scheduled maintenance works of HDPE and PP production facilities this year. The start of maintenance work is scheduled for 1 September and will take 45 days.

The company operates on a two-years cycle, and last year there was no stop for prevention. This will not be the first shutdown of Russian producers of HDPE for scheduled repairs in the current year.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat plans to shut its production capacities for a one-week scheduled turnaround in the early June. The plant's annual capacity is 120,000 tonnes/year.

It is also worth noting that Kazanorgsintez traditionally shuts its capacities for the production of HDPE in mid-September. The shutdown usually takes a little less than 4 weeks, the annual capacity is 540,000 tonnes/year.

Stavrolen's (part of Lukoil) annual capacity of PP and HDPE production is 120,000 and 300,000 tonnes, respectively.
The plant's output of propylene polymers and HDPE exceeded 99,500 tonnes and 33,800 tonnes, respectively, in the first four months of 2019.
MRC

Spanish refinery aims to produce up to 2.5 M tons/yr low-sulfur fuel oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish refinery Cepsa aims to produce 2.2 million-2.5 million tons per year of shipping fuel that will be compliant with new IMO rules capping sulfur emissions, the head of marine fuels for Cepsa Trading said, as per Reuters.

Cepsa has so far not secured any buyers for the new very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO), Carlos Giner Monleon told the Platts European Bunker Fuel Conference in Amsterdam.

Monleon said some customers tried the new fuel in tests at the end of February and at the end of April, but did not specify which customers.

From Jan. 1, 2020, ships will be required to burn fuels with a maximum 0.5% sulfur, down from 3.5% currently, International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules dictate.

U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group has agreed to buy between 30 and 40% of Cepsa from Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala.

As MRC informed earlier, Cepsa and Cosmo have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study new business opportunities in the lubricants market, both in Spain and Japan and internationally.
MRC

Shell sees significant oil discovery in Albania

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell Upstream Albania B.V. said initial tests showed “a flow potential of several thousand barrels of oil per day” from its Shpirag 4 well in central Albania, and it needed more work to determine its commercial volume, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"We are pleased that these initial tests have confirmed the potential of this discovery and look forward to growing our business in Albania," Marc Gerrits, Shell’s Executive Vice-President of Exploration, said.

The Shpirag 4 well west of Berat had confirmed the flow potential of significant light oil discovery, it added.

More appraisal work was needed to assess commercial volumes in Shpirag, in an equivalent geological setting to the large Val D’Agri and Tempa Rossa fields in Italy, Shell Albania said.

It plans to go ahead with extended production tests on the Shpirag 4 well and more drills to appraise the Shpirag 3 well, while exploring others to test their potential.

As MRC wrote previously, in May 2018. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Shell Nanhai B.V. (Shell) announced the official start-up of the second ethylene cracker at their Nanhai petrochemicals complex in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects.
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