Valero, proposes new renewable diesel plant in Texas, US

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Valero Energy, together with Darling Ingredients, has initiated an engineering and development cost review for a new renewable diesel plant in Port Arthur, Texas in the US, said Biofuels-news.

In response to the increased demand for renewable diesel in low-carbon markets, the facility under review would be designed to produce 400 million gallons of clean fuel per year, as well as 40 million gallons of renewable naphtha.

The plant will be owned and operated by Diamond Green Diesel, which is the 50/50 joint venture between Valero and Darling.

The proposed facility in Port Arthur would be the first renewable diesel plant in the state of Texas; its location will leverage Valero’s existing refinery and optimise logistics management.

Production from the new plant would increase Diamond Green Diesel’s annual renewable diesel production capacity to around 1.1 billion gallons, with almost 100 million gallons of renewable naphtha.

According to Valero, final investment decision on the project is expected in 2021, subject to further engineering, obtaining necessary permits, and approval by both company boards. If plans go ahead, plant construction could begin in 2021, with operations slated to start in 2024.

“We expect low-carbon fuel mandates across the globe to continue to drive demand growth for renewable fuels,” said Joe Gorder, Valero chairman, president and CEO. “This project would meaningfully expand our renewable diesel segment, which continues to generate strong results, and demonstrates our commitment to environmentally responsible operations."

The joint venture’s future total production capacity includes volumes from Diamond Green Diesel’s plant in Louisiana, which is currently being expanded to produce 675 million gallons of renewable diesel and 60 million gallons of naphtha. The expansion should be complete by the end of 2021.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), has restarted its polypropylene (PP) plant following an unplanned outage, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source informed that, the company has resumed operations at the plant, on September 10, 2019. The plant was shut on August 9, 2019, owing to a landslide near the pipeline area, thus damaging the pipeline. Earlier, the plant was supposed to resume operations by end-August, 2019.

Located at Mangalore, Karnataka, the plant has a PP production capacity of 440,000 mt/year.

We also remind that the company shut this plant for maintenance from mid-April to early July, 2019.

As MRC wrote before, in June 2015, MRPL successfully commenced commercial production of PP from its polypropylene plant as part of its phase-III refinery expansion and upgradation project in Mangaluru. The plant has a capacity to produce 440,000 tonnes of PP per annum. Feedstock for the PP plant - polymer grade propylene - is being produced from upstream petrochemical fluidised catalytic cracking unit of the refinery. Technology provider for the PP plant is Novolen of Germany. The plant has been engineered and constructed by Engineers India Ltd.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), is an oil refinery at Mangalore and is a subsidiary of ONGC, set up in 1993. The refinery is located at Katipalla, north from centre of Mangalore city. The refinery was established after displacing five villages of Bala, Kalavar, Kuthetoor, Katipalla, and Adyapadi.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Supervisory Board of OMV Aktiengesellschaft reappointed Rainer Seele (59) as the Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of OMV, said the company.

His term of office has thereby been extended by another two years to June 30, 2022, with an extension option for one additional year, subject to mutual consent. Rainer Seele has been Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of OMV since July 1, 2015.

In the same Supervisory Board meeting, Johann Pleininger (57), Chief Upstream Operations Officer, was also reappointed as Executive Board Member and Deputy Chairman of the Board. Johann Pleininger’s term of office has thereby been extended by another three years to August 31, 2023, with an extension option for two additional years, subject to mutual consent. Johann Pleininger has been a Member of the Executive Board of OMV, responsible for Upstream (Exploration & Production), since September 1, 2015.

Chairman of the OMV Supervisory Board, Wolfgang C. Berndt: “OMV has delivered an exceptional performance in recent years. This is the result of the new strategic direction adopted by the Executive Board, coupled with a sustained cost reduction that has led to record earnings. Since 2015, the adjusted operating result has more than doubled and the production volume increased by 40%. The Supervisory Board looks forward to further cooperation with the Executive Board team, aiming to continue the profitable international growth path."

OMV produces and markets oil and gas, innovative energy and high-end petrochemical solutions – in a responsible way. With Group sales of EUR 23 bn and a workforce of more than 20,000 employees in 2018, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. In Upstream, OMV has a strong base in Romania and Austria as part of the Central and Eastern Europe core region as well as a balanced international portfolio, with Russia, North Sea, Middle East and Africa as well as Asia-Pacific as further core regions. 2018 daily production stood at approximately 427,000 boe/d. In Downstream, OMV operates three refineries with a total annual processing capacity of 17.8 mn tons and more than 2,000 filling stations in ten countries. OMV runs gas storage facilities in Austria and Germany; its subsidiary Gas Connect Austria GmbH operates a gas pipeline network in Austria. In 2018, gas sales volumes amounted to around 114 TWh. Sustainability is an integral part of the corporate strategy. OMV is set to invest EUR 500 mn in innovative energy solutions by 2025.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant’s next-generation methanol synthesis catalyst is delivering exceptional performance at the coal-to-liquid plant of China Energy Corporation (CHN Energy) Ningxia Coal Industry Co Ltd (NCIC), located in Yinchuan, Ningxia Province, China. Installed at the plant in August 2018, MegaMax 800 achieved an anticipated operation load of 102 percent after just two months, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new catalyst’s fast and favorable start is due to its 40 percent higher productivity compared to previous generations.

Following its successful startup, MegaMax 800’s superior performance has benefitted NCIC in several ways. The 1-million-ton per year methanol production plant is experiencing considerably higher yield at lower energy and feedstock costs. In addition, make-up gas consumption has dropped by 51 million cubic meters per year. These combined process improvements will have a dramatic effect on the producer’s cost savings, which are now expected to be approximately USD3 million annually. The facility is further reporting the noticeably lower formation of by-products such as ethanol in the crude methanol product, which will undoubtedly add to its total profitability.

While the new catalyst’s superior performance was exceptional – it was also expected. That’s because MegaMax 800 is specially developed to offer higher activity and superior selectivity towards methanol production – even at very low reactor temperatures and pressures. Consequently, producers will be able to increase methanol capacity by as much as 10 percent, depending on the facility’s design and processes.

Stefan Heuser, Senior Vice President & General Manager Business Unit Catalysts at Clariant, commented, "We are delighted that our MegaMax 800 catalyst is providing NCIC the benefits we promised. The favorable results are significant! Not only because NCIC is one of China’s largest coal-to-chemicals producers, but also as it is the first customer for MegaMax 800 using the Lurgi LP methanol process in China. It is another example of how Clariant is able to offer perfectly compatible catalysts and technology to maximize production efficiency and reliability for our customers."

China Energy Corporation Ningxia Coal Industry Co Ltd is the largest coal-to-chemicals company in China as well as globally. It owns and operates a world-class coal-to-liquids (CTL) methanol plant, which has used the Lurgi LP methanol synthesis process since 2016.

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2017, Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, was awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world. Clariant's technology partner CB&I will base the plant's design on its Catofin catalytic dehydrogenation technology, which uses Clariant's tailor-made Catofin catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM).

Propylene is the main feedstock for producing polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF evelops next-generation technology to meet anticipated demand of the e-mobility market, said the company.

BASF will develop the recycling of lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles (EVs).

BASF invests a great amount of research and development into improving the effectiveness and versatility of its cathode active materials and intends to remain a global leader in this space for many years to come. By 2025, these efforts will help realize a vision of an electric midsize car with twice the real driving range (from 180 miles to 360 miles on a single charge) and battery lifetime, half the battery size and cost, and a charging time reduced to only 15 minutes, according to BASF e-mobility experts.

As the leading chemical supplier to the automotive industry, BASF is the first and currently the sole supplier of cathode active materials to battery producers with manufacturing operations in North America. “BASF provides cathode active materials (CAMs) to the battery industry. And those materials are coated on the positive electrode of a battery’s cell,” said Heiko Urtel, CEO & Business Director for BASF Battery Materials North America. “These CAMs are the major contributor toward reducing the cost and increasing the range of a battery, while also improving the lifetime and the charging behavior.

For its part, BASF noted that consumer reluctance toward EV adoption to date is largely driven by three concerns—driving range of the cars, charging times and cost.

“Range anxiety reflects consumer concern about the distance electric cars can travel on a single charge. With a small car, you typically reach a range of 150 miles today, and this is not what customers expect. They want to reach 300, 400 miles per fuel load,” said Urtel. “This is what we as BASF want to tackle in terms of innovation—to increase the performance of the battery in the future—by 2025—to meet the 300 to 400-mile target per battery charge."

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