MOSCOW (MRC) -- Novozymes says that with the inauguration ceremony of the new biomass-based block at the Asn's Power Station, all energy to Novozymes in Kalundborg, Denmark, comes from sources other than oil and coal, reported Chemweek.
This has become possible through an agreement among Novozymes, Novo Nordisk, Kalundborg Forsyning, and Orsted to phase out coal from Denmark's largest coal-fired power station unit, the Asn's Power Station, which is owned and operated by Orsted, and replace it with wood chips, the company says. Novozymes sources steam from the power station, it says.
"Today, we complete a circle of investments into energy efficiency and sustainability. Now, our entire supply of electricity, heat, and steam in Kalundborg comes from other sources than coal and oil,” says Thomas Videbk, executive vice president and COO at Novozymes. “This new agreement gives us a stable supply of green steam at competitive terms. In this way, it also supports an efficient production in Kalundborg with good jobs."
Novozymes uses electricity, heat, and steam as energy sources for its production operations in Kalundborg. The company has made significant investments over the years to increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact, it says. Prior to the addition of the new biomass-based block at the Asn's Power Station, steam was the only remaining energy source it used that was not based on renewables, Novozymes says.
As MRC wrote earlier, in 2012, BASF, Cargill and Novozymes signed an agreement to develop technologies to produce acrylic acid from renewable raw materials. Presently, acrylic acid is produced by the oxidation of propylene derived from the refining of crude oil. BASF – The Chemical Company, Cargill and industrial biotechnology company Novozymes were tol develop bio-based technologies to produce acrylic acid from renewable feedstocks.
We remind that BASF-YPC, a 50-50 joint venture of BASF and Sinopec, undertook a planned shutdown at its naphtha cracker on 30 April 2020. The company initially planned to start turnaround at the cracker on April 5, 2020. The plant remained under maintenance unitl 18 June, 2020. Located in Jiangsu, China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 750,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 400,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
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