BP forms consortium to recycle PET packaging

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Several companies have announced the formation of a new consortium that aims to address the problem of plastic waste by speeding up the commercialization of BP Infinia enhanced recycling technology that was developed by London-based BP, reported RecyclingToday.

Businesses involved in the partnership include those that manufacture, use, collect and recycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic packaging.

BP Infinia is designed to turn opaque and hard-to-recycle PET plastic scrap into recyclable feedstocks that can be used to make high-quality PET packaging with no loss in quality, according to BP.

The new consortium plans to combine the capabilities of its members to develop a circular approach to handling PET scrap, BP Infinia reports. Companies involved in the consortium include Alpla, a packaging and recycling specialist based in Austria; Britvic PLC, a consumer goods producer based in the U.K.; Danone, a consumer goods producer based in Paris; Unilever, a consumer goods producer based in London; Remondis Group, a waste management and recycling specialist based in Germany; and BP, an energy and petrochemicals producer.

Of the PET bottles collected globally, more than 75 percent are recycled but only 12 percent of those collected are used to make new bottles, BP reports in a news release on the consortium.

"The consortium members believe by joining forces they can speed up the commercialization of the technology, infrastructure and demand needed to process billions of opaque and difficult-to-recycle PET bottles and food trays that are currently disposed of each year, including those that are difficult to recycle by current conventional recycling methods," BP states in its news release. "It is the intention that each member of the consortium will contribute resources and distinctive capabilities and experience in areas such as waste management and recycling, technology development, intermediate processing and product design to develop a business model that takes into consideration the infrastructure, supply chain and demand requirements of all parties that will be involved in creating a circular economy for polyester and PET."

"In order to implement material circularity in PET packaging, we need new technologies for packaging that can’t yet be mechanically processed," says Ralf Mandelatz, managing director of Remondis Recycling GmbH & Co. "We want this material resource to return into the circular economy; chemical recycling complements mechanical recycling and provides further possibilities to sustainable resource management. Remondis intends to contribute its specialist experience in the field of sorting and PET processing to the other consortium partners leading this European project."

BP reports that other parties may join the consortium to further complement the expertise of the founding members.

"This is an exciting step towards a circular economy for the polyester industry. BP is experienced in developing and scaling up technology, and we’ll do this again with our innovative BP Infinia process," says Rita Griffin, BP chief operating officer of petrochemicals. "But we know we cannot create circularity on our own. That’s why we are thrilled to be working together with industry leaders to develop and prove a practical business model that can hopefully contribute to making all types of polyester waste infinitely recyclable."

Consortium members have expressed excitement about the new collaboration.

"Joining this consortium is an investment in the future of recycling technology, which is critical to keeping plastic in the loop," says Marc Engel, Unilever’s chief supply chain officer. "By working together, we can help accelerate the industry towards a circular economy.

"We’ve recently committed to halve our use of virgin plastic, reducing our absolute use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 [metric tons] and accelerating the use of recycled plastic," he continues. "We’ve also committed to help collect and process more plastic packaging than we sell by 2025."

In October, BP also announced plans to construct a USD25 million pilot plant in the US to prove its BP Infinia technology on a continuous basis before progressing to full-scale commercialization.

Tufan Erginbilgic, BP downstream chief executive, said in October, "We see our Infinia technology as a game-changer for the recycling of PET plastics. It is an important steppingstone in enabling a stronger circular economy in the polyester industry and helping to reduce unmanaged plastic waste."

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2019, BP announced plans to build a USD25 million pilot plant to test new technology that will allow plastic bottles and food packaging to be recycled again and again.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall estimated PET consumption reached 42,020 tonnes in October 2019, down by 32% year on year. PET consumption in Russia increased to 593,480 tonnes in January-October 2019, up by 5% year on year.

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP’s business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
MRC

Marco Swoboda to become new Henkel CFO

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Effective January 1, 2020, Marco Swoboda (48), Corporate Senior Vice President Finance, will become new Chief Financial Officer of Henkel. He will succeed Carsten Knobel (50) who will take over the position as CEO effective January 1, 2020, said the company.

"We are pleased to name Marco Swoboda as a highly qualified successor to our Chief Financial Officer from within our organization. He has strong financial expertise with many years of international experience,” said Dr. Simone Bagel-Trah, Chairwoman of the Shareholders’ Committee and the Supervisory Board.

Marco Swoboda was born in Velbert, Germany, in 1971. After studying business administration and economics at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, he started his career with Henkel in 1997 in the group’s controlling/strategy unit.

Following the spin-off of Henkel's chemicals division under the name Cognis, he joined the corporate development/M&A unit of the newly formed company, based in the Netherlands, in 2000. At Cognis, he managed the divestment process to a private equity consortium and then headed group controlling before returning to Henkel in 2006. He reorganized the controlling of subsidiaries and functions at Henkel and in 2009, he assumed in addition responsibility for corporate planning. From 2011 to 2014, he headed the Asia Pacific finance organization, based in Shanghai.

He then returned to headquarters in Dusseldorf. As Corporate Senior Vice President Finance, he took over responsibility for the global finance organization as well as the corporate accounting, subsidiary controlling and corporate finance/treasury units.

As MRC informed earlier, in June 2015, Henkel Russia opened a new dry building mixes plant in the Novosibirsk region. The production site reportedly places the company closer to customers in the Siberian and Far East regions of Russia.

Henkel operates in three business units, including laundry and home care, beauty care and adhesive technologies.
MRC

DIC increases production capacity for polystyrene

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DIC Corporation announced that it has increased the annual polystyrene production capacity of its Yokkaichi Plant, in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, to 216,000 metric tonnes, from 208,000 metric tonnes, by reinforcing the plant’s polystyrene production facility and optimizing processes, said the company.

Investment was not disclosed. The Company has set a target for increasing annual sales of polystyrene by 10% from the fiscal year 2017 level by fiscal year 2023.

DIC has recently introduced a highly heat-resistant new product to its polystyrene lineup, which centers on Hybranch®, a high-performance hyperbranched styrene that boasts superb moldability and strength. The heat resistance of the new offering is between 5° C and 10° C higher than that of conventional polystyrene, making it a particularly appropriate choice for microwavable ready-to-cook meals. The new polystyrene is also environment-friendly, offering excellent recyclability and reducing overall packaging weight, thereby helping conserve resources.

In addition to responding to expanding demand from the ready-made meals market by ensuring a stable supply of products, the DIC Group works to provide products that contribute to the safety and security of trays and other packaging materials used for food and help address urgent global environmental issues.

As per DataScope of MRC, Ineos Styrolution"s general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) imports into Russia increased in the first eleven months of 2019 by 64% year on year to 12,000 tonnes. This figure was 7,300 tonnes in January-November 2018. Ineos Styrolution is the largest GPPS supplier to Russia.

European material accounted for 47% of the total GPPS shipments over the stated period versus 36% in the first eleven months of 2018.
MRC

Petrobras launches binding phase to sell REGAP refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said it had launched the binding phase for the sale of Gabriel Passos Refinery, known as REGAP, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to a securities filing.

Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter, that China’s Sinopec and US-Based EIG Global Energy Partners had entered non-binding offers to buy REGAP, which has capacity to refine 166,000 barrels of oil per day.

As MRC wrote previously, the chief executive of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro said last Friday he wants to sell the company's stake in petrochemical company Braskem within 12 months, adding that he strongly disagreed with reported plans to delay the sale.

We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC

Azerbaijan crude oil, condensate output decreased 3.2% in Jan-Nov

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azerbaijan’s crude oil and gas condensate output fell by 3.2% year-on-year in January-November 2019 to 34.3 million tons, the State Statistics Committee said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Azerbaijan produced 38.758 million tonnes of crude oil and gas condensate in 2018, almost unchanged from 2017.

As MRC informed before, SOCAR Turkey Energy, which is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), plans to lay the foundation of the Mercury petrochemical complex in Turkey in H1-2020. The plant will be located in Aliaga district, next to the Petkim petrochemical complex and the STAR refinery. With the commissioning of this plant, Turkey will settle the matter with the import of purified terephthalic acid (PTA).

PTA is one of the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall estimated PET consumption reached 42,020 tonnes in October 2019, down by 32% year on year. At the same time, the estimated PET consumption in Russia increased to 593,480 tonnes in January-October 2019, up by 5% year on year.
MRC