Zhejiang Petrochemical to launch new ACN plant on 20 May

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.
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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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals’ plant and Indian Oil’s refinery in East Midnapore district have been put on high alert in the wake of cyclone Amphan, which is expected to hit West Bengal coast on Wednesday, reported THE HINDU.

Several measures have been taken by the Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) management in view of the cyclone, said its plant head Ashok Ghosh.

"We have decided not to take any power from the grid but will remain connected to it," he told PTI.

HPL will run additional compressors and cooling water units to support the process plants, Ghosh said, adding that all the drains within the premises of the factory have been cleaned.

He said nobody will stay in the plant except those in the control room.

All senior officers will be present at the plant site on Wednesday, he added.

The storm system in the Bay of Bengal, Amphan, developed into a super cyclone on Monday and is expected to make landfall along the West Bengal-Bangladesh coast on Wednesday, according to the India Meteorological Department.

As MRC wrote previously, in late March 2020, HPL shut its naphtha cracker, after ports in the country declared force majeure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The petrochemical maker operates a 670,000 tonnes per year cracker, which on average would need more than 150,000 tonnes of naphtha feedstock a month if the unit is at full capacity.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Phillips 66, Uniper and Vitol-owned VPI Immingham have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to install post-combustion CO2 capture equipment on two of VPI Immingham's three gas-fired power generators and selected processing units at the Humber and Lindsay refineries, reported S&P Global with reference to the companies' statements Tuesday.

The Humber Zero decarbonization project would then seek to develop of a hydrogen hub producing both green and blue hydrogen to serve the third VPI Immingham generator and local industry, they said.

Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas with the addition of carbon capture. Green hydrogen is produced via electrolysis using renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

In a first phase, Humber Zero would capture 8 million metric tonnes per annum of CO2 emissions, with the potential to target 30 million mt CO2 emissions from the wider Humber Cluster to the west of Immingham, the companies said.

"Humber Zero has already secured support from Innovate UK and intends to be operational by the mid-2020s," they said.

Its coastal location "enables the efficient offtake of CO2 into offshore depleted oil and gas fields and gives access to offshore wind developments for electrolysis," the companies said.

The project could also help decarbonize other power stations and industry in the vicinity such as British Steel, through the planned southern Humber pipeline route.

Wood Group, Imperial College of London and the University of Sheffield are also involved in the project, which is part of Innovate UK's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund competition to deliver 2050 Net Zero objectives.

The project is to move into a front end engineering design (FEED) phase in 2021 as part of the wider Humber Deployment Project.

Project director Jonathan Briggs said Humber Zero "can establish the foundation for a gateway to decarbonize the wider Humber, bringing new industries, sectors and jobs to the region. I look forward to progressing the project into FEED together with UKRI and the UK government."

The Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Deployment Project won a share of GBP2 million of first-phase funding in April from the UK Research and Innovation body (UKRI).

The winners of the funding now go forward to compete for up to GBP131 million (USD163 million) of funds in a second phase of the competition, for projects delivering significant greenhouse gas emission reductions in a UK industrial cluster by 2030.

VPI Immingham is a 1,240 MW gas-fired combined heat and power station. It was completed in 2004 and expanded in 2009.

As MRC informed earlier, US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a long-term commercial agreement with Anhui Wanwei Group (Wanwei) for the supply of its green-technology, ethylene-based vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), reported Apic-online.

The VAM will support about 50% of Wanwei's captive product needs in the manufacture of chemicals, fibers and new material in Chaohu, Anhui Province, China. The company's main product is polyvinyl alcohol.

"As the world's largest producer of vinyl acetate monomer, Celanese is advancing green technologies used in the production of various emulsion polymers that not only meet stringent environmental regulations, but also help our customers meet their sustainability goals and product expectations," noted Florian Kohl, vice president of Celanese's VAM, Emulsion & Redispersible Powders businesses.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese Corporation has restarted its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) unit in Singapore. The company has resumed operations at the unit on March 16, 2020. The unit was shut since February 4, 2020 following a fire at the site. Located in Jurong Island, Singapore, the unit has a production capacity of 210,000 mt/year.

VAM is the main feedstock for the production of ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA).

According to MRC's DataScope report, February EVA imports to Russia rose by 9,83% year on year to 3,107 tonnes from 2,829 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation increased in January-February 2020 by 8,36% year on year to 6,194 tonnes (5,716 tonnes a year earlier).

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of USD6.3 billion.
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