Bericap closes the loop on sauce bottle valves

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Closures manufacturer Bericap has eliminated silicon from its valves and introduced BericapValve, which is a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) that can be recycled in the HDPE and PP recycling stream, said Plasticsinpackaging.

Traditional ketchup, mayonnaise and other sauce bottles are often equipped with hinge-caps, and about 40 per cent of these closures have an additional valve to allow for precise and convenient dosing. However, the silicon usually used in the valve contaminates the PET and/or the HDPE/PP recycling stream.

The central packaging register in Germany, established in 2018 for monitoring the packaging stream, the recycling of packaging as well as evaluation of the sustainability of packaging, considers silicon a non-desired contaminant in the recycling stream. In addition, France has established an eco-tax on silicon.

But recycling is a prerequisite within a closed-loop economy for plastics packaging, and the recycling of PET bottles as well as HDPE and PP, which are often used for closures, is very efficient and thus attractive for producers. Returned and collected bottles are ground to pieces, the PET on the one side and the HDPE and PP on the other side are separated in a water bath. The PET sinks and can be reused for the manufacturing of bottles. The HDPE and PP as valuable raw materials remain floating on the water and can be re-used for high value applications.

"With the development of our silicon-free valves, one of the most important products within the ketchup, mayonnaises and spreadables segment, we increase the efficiency within the recycling process and make an important contribution to environmental protection", said Alexander Knipp, Bericap’s business segment leader for ketchup, mayonnaises and spreadables.

As MRC informed earlier, Bericap North America Inc. is investing USD29 million in an expansion that will double the size of its Cowpens plant.

Bericap, a subsidiary of Bericap GmbH & Co. of Budenheim, Germany, opened the 90,000-square-foot South Carolina plant in 2007. The plant does secondary operations like printing and assembly. Bericap North America is based in Burlington, Ontario and has a plant in Ontario, Calif. Bericap is a manufacturer of plastic closures with 21 factories in 19 countries across the world. The company offers a wide range of products for beverages, food, motor oil and agricultural industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil and SABIC have announced the decision to proceed with the construction of a chemical facility and a 1.8 million metric ton ethane steam cracker in San Patricio County, Texas, leading to thousands of high-paying jobs and billions in economic output, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Building the world’s largest steam cracker, with state-of-the-art technology, on the doorstep of rapidly growing Permian production gives this project significant scale and feedstock advantages," said Darren W. Woods, chairman and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil. "It is one of several key projects that provide the foundation for significantly increasing the company’s earnings potential."

The joint-venture between ExxonMobil and SABIC, called Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, received final environmental regulatory approval in June 2019 to build an ethane steam cracker, two polyethylene units and a monoethylene glycol unit. Construction will begin in the third quarter of 2019 and startup is anticipated by 2022.

"SABIC is very pleased to move forward on this third joint venture with ExxonMobil - the first to be operated outside of Saudi Arabia," said SABIC vice chairman and CEO Yousef Al-Benyan. "This project will not only increase global diversification for our company, but will also continue to create value within our new home of San Patricio County through creating jobs and supporting economic growth. With this project, we look forward to further building our business presence in the US and serving the communities and customers in the North and South American markets even more effectively."

The project is expected to create more than 600 permanent jobs with average annual salaries of USD90,000 per year. An additional 6,000 high-paying jobs will be created during construction. A preliminary independent study, conducted by Impact DataSource, estimates the project will generate more than USD22 billion in economic output during construction and USD50 billion in economic benefits during the first six years of operation.

The facility will produce materials used in the manufacturing of various consumer products including automotive coolants, packaging, agricultural film and building, construction materials and clothing.

Project construction will be led by four primary engineering, procurement and construction companies: The Wood Group, McDermott & Turner Industries Group, Chiyoda & Kiewit and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries & Zachry Group.

Gulf Coast Growth Ventures is a unique opportunity created by the abundance of low cost US natural gas, and is part of ExxonMobil’s Growing the Gulf initiative, which outlined plans to build and expand manufacturing facilities along the US Gulf Coast, creating more than 45,000 high-paying jobs across the region.

The project is part of SABIC’s growth strategy to build new petrochemical facilities in key markets, including the Americas, to address industry demand and achieve the company’s 2025 strategy.

Ownership interests in the Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project is 50 percent ExxonMobil and 50 percent SABIC, with ExxonMobil as site operator. ExxonMobil and SABIC bring unmatched expertise to this project, having worked together in petrochemical ventures for more than 35 years. The Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project expands that successful international relationship.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2017, ExxonMobil Chemical Company commenced production on the first of two new 650,000 tons-per-year high-performance polyethylene (PE) lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The full project, part of the company’s multi-billion dollar expansion project in the Baytown area and ExxonMobil’s broader Growing the Gulf expansion initiative, will increase the plant’s polyethylene capacity by approximately 1.3 million tons per year.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the worldпїЅs market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Repsol has joined Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS), the joint industry initiative to increase the circularity of styrenic polymers, as a new member, reported BritishPlastics.

The energy company joins the four founding members INEOS Styrolution, Total, Trinseo and Versalis (Eni).

SCS is now well established with producers of styrene monomer as well as styrenic polymers and has considerably widened the geographic scope of its membership to the Iberian Peninsula.

SCS has advanced rapidly since its foundation participating in the European Commission‘s Circular Plastics Alliance and delivering promising results from the depolymerisation of various post-consumer polystyrene waste samples in a project with Agilyx.

The organisation says engaging with the entire value chain and broadening its membership remains a priority for the organisation.

Jens Kathmann, Secretary-General of SCS, said: "SCS is delighted to welcome Repsol as a new member. Since our incorporation in December 2018, SCS has been driving the commitment shared throughout our industry to deliver the unique recycling potential of styrenics to the circular economy, even for food contact applications. To be joined by a major industry player such as Repsol is a testament to the work we are doing and will greatly strengthen our progress."

Antonio Portela, Intermediates Director within the Chemical Business in Repsol, added: "At Repsol, we are fully committed to Circular Economy along the entire value chain. We join SCS because we believe that, due to polystyrene's intrinsic properties, styrenics are perfectly suited to fully close the loop, allowing full recyclability. The work of SCS is instrumental in delivering on this potential and our SCS membership is a natural progression of Repsol's circularity strategy."

As MRC informed previously, in Q1 2016, Repsol completed the construction work of its new metallocene polyethelene plant at its Tarragona site. Repsol started up the plant and began production and marketing of this new product during Q2 2016.

Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- GAIL has launched a study to double petrochemical capacity at its Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd. (BCPL) subsidiary in Assam, India, according to Apic-online with reference to a local news report citing GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B.C. Tripathi.

The project, for which a schedule was not given, would use naphtha feedstock from Numaligarh Refinery, which recently received approval for an expansion to 9-million t/y from 3-million t/y presently. The refinery is expected to be completed in four years.

BCPL currently has a nameplate capacity of 220,000 t/y of linear low-density polyethylene and high-density polyethylene and 60,000 t/y of polypropylene.

Last year, PCN reported that Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government wanted GAIL to exit its non-core petrochemicals business "gradually" and focus on its pipeline business.

As MRC wrote previously, India's state-owned gas utility company GAIL India plans to import ethane from countries including the US, for its upcoming USD5 billion joint-venture Andhra Pradesh petrochemical plant. GAIL is seeking 1.3 million mt/year of ethane for 15 years for its JV ethane cracker with India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), located on the east coast of India beginning 2022, the company said in February 2016.

Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) is the largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. It has the following business segments: natural gas, liquid hydrocarbon, liquefied petroleum gas transmission, petrochemicals, city gas distribution, exploration and production, GAILTEL and electricity generation.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polypropylene (PP) imports into Russia slumped in the first five months of 2019 by 7% year on year to 74,200 tonnes.
The greatest decrease in imports accounted for homopolymer PP, according to MRC DataScope.

May PP imports into the Russian market decreased to 16,300 tonnes from 18,700 tonnes a month earlier, supply of all grades of propylene polymers declined. In general, total PP imports into the country decreased to about 74,200 tonnes in January - May compared with 79,300 tonnes year on year. The volume of external purchases for all grades of polymers of propylene decreased, with the exception of stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers), with the most noticeably reduced imports of homopolymer PP.

Overall, the structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.
May imports of homopolymer PP were 6,500 tonnes, compared to 6,300 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall imports of homopolymer PP to Russia totalled 25,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2019, compared to 28,700 tonnes a year earlier.

May imports of PP block copolymers in Russia were about 5,100 tonnes against 5,600 tonnes in April on decreased demand for pipe PP.
Imports of PP block copolymers into Russia reached 21,200 tonnes in January-May 2019, compared to 20,000 tonnes a year earlier.

May imports of PP random copolymers were about 1,700 tonnes versus 3,600 tonnes a month earlier, on decreased volumes of pipe PP purchases. Total imports of PP random copolymers in Russia were 13,100 tonnes in January - May 2018, compared with 13,800 tonnes year on year.

Russia's imports of other polymers of propylene for the period were about 14,500 tonnes in the first five months of the year, compared with 16.900 tonnes year on year.

MRC