Neste plans restructure of refinery operations in Finland

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Neste is planning to restructure its refinery operations in Porvoo and Naantali, Finland. The company is exploring the shutdown of its refinery operations in Naantali and focusing the Naantali site on the terminal and harbor operations, as well as transforming the Porvoo refinery operations to co-processing renewable and circular raw materials, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The demand for fossil oil products will continue to decline, and the share of renewable energy solutions will continue to grow in the coming years. The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially accelerated the decline in demand for oil products, which is not expected to recover to previous levels. Fundamental changes are therefore needed to secure the competitiveness of Neste’s Oil Products business. With the planned measures, Neste aims to improve its productivity, resource efficiency and adaptiveness to market changes. The planned measures will not affect the security of fuel distribution supply in Finland.

"The energy transition is proceeding faster than expected. The forthcoming operating and maintenance investments in the Naantali refinery are not viable nor sustainable in a situation where there is large over-capacity for oil refining globally. Although the time is not optimal, and this news is unfortunate for many of us, the planned actions to develop our refinery operations are urgently needed to maintain operations and strategic capabilities in refining in Finland and to secure Oil Products’ competitiveness," says Neste’s President and CEO Peter Vanacker.

To initiate the transformation, the company will start cooperation negotiations in the Oil Products business unit and its supporting functions in Finland. If implemented, the plans would mean up to 470 redundancies, including possible outsourcing. The decisions on the measures and impacts on the various functions, personnel groups and locations will be made after the negotiations have been concluded. The planned changes are expected to result in annual fixed cost savings of approximately EUR 50 million.

"Neste’s ambition is to become a global leader in renewable and circular solutions, and to achieve carbon neutral production by 2035. The planned changes will support the transformation of the Porvoo refinery into a leading, sustainable, safe and efficient refinery, enabled by our highly innovative and efficient Neste people," Vanacker said.

As MRC reported earlier, Neste and Jokey, a leading international manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging, have started collaborating with a target to develop the market for rigid packaging from sustainable renewable and recycled materials for food and non-food applications.

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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1. Ascend expands into nonwoven face masks market

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ascend Performance Materials has made their new mask technology available to the public for purchase, said Chemweek. In July, NorthEscambia.com first reported that Ascend developed a new mask technology that protect against SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, and the material to make it is manufactured at the company’s North Escambia facility on Old Chemstrand Road. The Acteev Protect Nonwoven Mask is a reusable general purpose mask that features powerful built-in antimicrobial technology to protect the mask from odor-causing bacteria and mold fungi in a soft, breathable, comfortable fabric that is gentle on the skin.


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and South Korea’s systems firm G-Philos have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly launch power-to-gas (P2G) projects, said the company.

Green hydrogen production from renewable energies, such as solar, wind and hydro, without CO2 emissions has been drawing ever-more global attention in recent years. In South Korea, the Green New Deal comprises plans to invest KRW 73.4 trillion (USD61 billion) in projects, including renewable energy and hydrogen, as a part of South Korea’s policy to transform into a low-carbon society. P2G technologies will be one of the key elements of this plan. South Korea is expanding its renewable energy supply and clean hydrogen production in a similar manner to the E.U., which recently announced its own Hydrogen Strategy. With the recently signed MoU, BNB and G-Philos are now joining forces to support the expansion of green hydrogen production from renewable energy.

BNB distributes NAS batteries produced by NGK Insulators Ltd. NAS® batteries are high-energy, long-duration sodium-sulfur batteries designed for stationary energy storage. With their capability to discharge for 4–8 hours, NAS batteries are ideally suited for applications such as renewable power stabilization and integration into the grid. In order to use the electrical energy stored in the battery, a power conversion system (PCS) is needed.

G-Philos has developed a suitable PCS for a 200 kW NAS® battery system. The battery and the PCS have already been commissioned in a P2G project implemented by G-Philos in collaboration with Korea Midland Power (KOMIPO) at Sangmyung Wind Farm (21 MW), Jeju Island, South Korea. In this case, the NAS battery serves as an energy buffer between wind turbines and electrolyzers to ensure stable hydrogen production from surplus wind power despite the fluctuating nature of wind. G-Philos can now supply PCS products for the NAS battery systems ranging from 200 kW up to 800 kW.

Gawoo Park, CEO of G-Philos, said: "In order to stably produce green hydrogen while accommodating the variability of renewable energy, the NAS battery is expected to play an important role in securing system operation safety and reliable long-term operation as an energy buffer. G-Philos will keep focusing on commercializing green hydrogen production through various P2G projects."

BNB’s Director of E-Power Management, Frank Prechtl, said: “Green hydrogen production is an upcoming market and a promising application for NAS batteries. With G-Philos, we now have a strong and competent partner to develop this opportunity into a sizeable business."

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical railcar traffic in North America strengthened notably during the week ended 5 September, according to data released on 9 September by the Association of American Railroads (AAR), said Chemweek.

On a four-week basis, volume was down 4.2% from 2019 and 5.4% from 2018 (chart), improving over respective shortfalls of 5.9% and 7.2% during the period ended 2 September. Likewise, year-to-date volume was down 4.6% from 2019 and 5.7% from 2018, versus respective shortfalls of 4.8% and 5.9% in the previous week.

Volume for the week totaled 43,730 carloads, up 1.7% year-over-year (YOY) and 0.2% sequentially. The US contributed 30,290 carloads to the total, down 1.9% YOY and down 2.1% from the previous week. For the year to date, US chemical railcar traffic is down 4.9%.

Canadian chemical rail traffic totaled 12,425 carloads, up 11.5% YOY and up 5.8% from the previous week. For the year to date, Canadian chemical railcar traffic is down 3.6%. Chemical railcar traffic in Mexico totaled 1,015 carloads, a YOY increase of 6.7% and a sequential increase of 7.0%.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Johnson Matthey promoting environmental protection and sustainability via Israeli innovation, said Chemweek.

"We hope that Israel creates such a vibrant development community that we will develop more and more technologies that we can deploy all around the world," said Maurits van Tol, Chief Technology Officer at Johnson Matthey.

"We hope that Israel creates such a vibrant development community that we will develop more and more technologies that we can deploy all around the world. Many of the problems that society's facing are global challenges and we want to be part of the solution," Maurits van Tol, Chief Technology Officer at Johnson Matthey said on Monday during Calcalist and ESIL Technologies’ Sustainability and Innovation Week.

Johnson Matthey, which has a USD17 billion turnover and 14,000 employees, is a British multinational speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company. According to van Tol, 86% of the company's sales are related to the UN’s sustainable development goals.

"We provide catalytic converters for cars, for trucks, for marine applications, and static applications. But we're also very active in the hydrogen space, for example, hydrogen production, blue hydrogen, now moving into green hydrogen. And all kinds of technologies for the production of methanol that can help with the production of fertilizers. So we're a technology and catalyst provider in the sustainability technology space," explained van Tol.

Johnson Matthey is active in Israel and works in cooperation with ESIL Technologies' innovation lab in promoting environmental protection and sustainability.

"ESIL for us is really important as a window on the world in the innovation space, in the sustainability area. And it's of course connecting very strong partners, like Bazan, EDF and ourselves," added van Tol. "We hope to grow that ecosystem together through ESIL as a connecting vehicle. We want to make sure that this planet can continue to be inhabited in a very safe way by many more generations. And if we can contribute, through ESIL, then we'd love to do that."

As MRC wrote previously, in June 2019, Johnson Matthey (JM) announced that Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group had "successfully" commissioned a new methanol plant at Ningxia Baofeng's 600,000-t/y coal-to-olefins complex in Ningxia Province, China. The 6,600-t/d methanol unit, based on technology from JM, utilizes syngas feedstock and combines advanced JM catalysts to produce stabilized methanol, which is used to produce olefins in a downstream facility.

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.
MRC