PKN Orlen Plans IPA Plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polish refining and petrochemical company PKN Orlen has purchased a license and basic design for use in an isopropanol (IPA) plant it plans to build at its site in Plock, said Chemanager.

The facility is part of program to expand phenol output at the site. In February, Honeywell announced it was licensing its UOP Q-Max and phenol 3G technologies to Orlen for a 200,000 t/y phenol unit. The acetone byproduct will be used to feed the new IPA plant.

“The project is an example of our well thought-out strategy of shifting our portfolio from commodity to specialty products in response to growing customer expectations,” said Zbigniew Leszczynski, member of Orlen’s management board, development.

Orlen added that if the project goes ahead, it will be the world’s fifth company to implement the IPA technology. It plans to begin basic engineering design work and launch the selection process to secure a general contractor in the coming months.

IPA has a wide range of applications, including for hand sanitizers, which has seen unprecedented demand because of the coronavirus pandemic. Orlen said that as well as adding value to its business and the Polish economy, the IPA plant would also make the country more secure in the event of a future epidemic.

Catherine MacGregor, president of Technip Energies, said: “Our innovative IPA process not only addresses an urgent global need, but its flexibility also provides the option to integrate the production and purification of IPA with our process for converting acetone to cumene (ATC), enabling phenol producers to balance solvent production.”

As MRC informed earlier, in H1 September 2019, Honeywell announced that PKN ORLEN had licensed the UOP MaxEne process, which can increase production of ethylene and aromatics and improve the flexibility of gasoline production. The project, for the PKN ORLEN facility in Plock, Poland, currently is in the basic engineering stage. Honeywell UOP, a leading provider of technologies for the oil and gas industry, first commercialized the UOP MaxEne process in 2013. The process enables refiners and petrochemical producers to direct molecules within the naphtha feed to the processes that deliver the greatest value and improve yields of fuels and petrochemicals.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.

Several companies have announced plans in recent weeks to expand or shift production to make IPA, including Ineos, ExxonMobil, Honeywell, Huntsman, Seqens, among others.
MRC

1. Borealis decision to discontinue world-scale polyethylene project in Kazakhstan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis says it will not proceed with the development of a multi-billion-dollar integrated steam cracker and polyethylene (PE) project in Kazakhstan, said the company.“The decision to discontinue this project is based on a thorough assessment of all aspects of the prospective venture and impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic as well as the increased uncertainty of future market assumptions,” Borealis states.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out on Tuesday at a catalyst plant in LG Chem’s petrochemical complex in the southwestern city of South Korea, leaving one worker dead and two injured, reported Reuters with reference to the company and a fire station official's statements.

The fire, which occurred at LG Chem’s catalyst plant in the southwestern city of Seosan at around 2:25 p.m. (0525 GMT), has been contained, a fire station official from the Seosan Fire Station told Reuters.

LG Chem said the cause of the fire was likely to be spontaneous ignition of powder at the plant, but the company is looking into the exact cause.

In early May, a gas leaked from the South Korean petrochemical maker-owned factory in India, killing more than 10 people and making more than hundreds of people sick. Last week, LG Chem sent a delegation to India to investigate the cause of the incident.

As MRC wrote previously, LG Chem, a South Korean petrochemical major, has reduced its operational rates of its cracker to around 90-95% starting January 2020 due to weaker economic fundamentals. Based in Daesan, South Korea, the cracker is able to produce 1.27 million tons/year of ethylene and 650,000 tons/year of propylene. The company increased capacity utilisation at this cracker to 100% on 10 March, 2020, in order to supply ethylene to Lotte Chemical.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.

LG Chem Ltd., often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. According to ICIS report, it is 15th biggest chemical company in the world in 2011. It has eight domestic factories and global network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. LG Chem is a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of petrochemical goods, IT&E Materials and Energy Solutions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd is poised to start up its new acrylonitrile (ACN) plant on 20 May, 2020, reported S&P Global.

Based in Zhejiang, China, this plant is able to produce 260,000 tons/year of ACN. Initially, the company planned to begin operations at this production in early May, but then postponed the start to the second half of May.

As MRC informed earlier, Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd started up its ethylene cracker in late December 2019 and its polyolefin plants in late December 2019-January 2020.

Market sources reported then that one of its polypropylene (PP) plant with capacity of 450,000 tons/year started up by 30 December 2019, followed by another line with same capacity by 15 January 2020.

Meanwhile its 450,000 tons/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and 300,000 tons/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE) were launched around similar time with PP plants.

We also remind that China's greenfield Zhejiang Petrochemical will use a range of process technology from Honeywell UOP for the second phase of its integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, according to a document, quoting a senior Honeywell official. "This second phase of the complex by itself will process 20 million tons per year of crude oil and produce another six million tons per year of aromatics when completed," Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager, Process Technology and Equipment, at Honeywell UOP, stated in the document as of January 2019.

ACN is the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's ABS output was 920 tonnes in March. Russian producers manufactured 2,600 tonnes of ABS plastics in January-March 2020, down by 59% a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The U.S. ethanol industry is showing some signs of recovery as government officials ease stay-at-home orders that depressed fuel demand, while a vote Friday in Congress could bring the industry one step closer to federal aid, industry officials said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Fuel demand collapsed by about a third with the spread of the novel coronavirus this spring, and U.S. ethanol production capacity halved as around 150 facilities either idled or reduced rates. Now as restrictions ease and gasoline demand inches higher, about 140 facilities are idled or running at reduced rates, Renewable Fuels Association President Geoff Cooper said on Friday.

“It seems the worst may be behind us,” Cooper said in a call with reporters. “But make no mistake, we still have a very long way to go to climb out of the hole that COVID-19 put us in."

U.S. production of ethanol - a corn-based fuel that refiners must blend into their gasoline - has increased since the start of May, rising to 617,000 barrels per day in the week to May 8, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed. Production bottomed at the end of April, at 537,000 bpd.

Output is still down more than 40% from year-ago levels, though. And while inventories fell in the most recent week to 24.2 million barrels, stored supply is still nearly 9% higher than the same time last year, EIA data showed.

“We are seeing inventories come down, but we need to see frankly many more weeks of that to get this thing back into balance,” said Neil Koehler, chief executive of Pacific Ethanol.

The increased production comes as Congress readies a vote on Friday for a coronavirus relief bill that includes aid for the biofuels industry. After assistance to the industry failed to make its way into the first relief package from Congress, advocates hope that the new bill will pass the House of Representatives on Friday before moving on to the Senate.

The bill, introduced by House Democrats, would reimburse producers that suffered unexpected market losses because of the pandemic from Jan. 1 through May 1.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC