Idemitsu Renewables brings live 100-MW solar park in California

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Idemitsu Renewables, formerly Solar Frontier Americas, has put on stream a 100-MW solar park in California’s Kings County, said Renewablesnow.

The commissioning was announced on Thursday by Peninsula Clean Energy, a community choice aggregator and electricity provider for California’s San Mateo County. The company said the power plant will "exclusively" generate electricity to supply its customers.

Located in Leemore, the Mustang Two Whirlaway photovoltaic (PV) park is expected to have an output that will be enough to cover the electricity consumption of almost 58,000 homes per year.

Peninsula Clean Energy noted it has so far signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for the output of 500 MW of renewable energy facilities. Among those is the 200-MW Wright solar farm that was brought online in San Mateo County in January. The company has set a goal of delivering 100% carbon-free electricity by 2021 and achieve 100% renewable power supplies by 2025.

Idemitsu Renewables is the renewable energy business of Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd.

As MRC informed earlier, Idemitsu Kosan plans to close the cracking unit in Chiba (Chiba, Japan) in April 2021 for scheduled maintenance. This cracking unit with a capacity of 413,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 180,000 tonnes/year of propylene per year will be closed for scheduled work for two months.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese oil company that owns oil platforms and refineries. The company manufactures and markets oil and petrochemical products. She operates two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The capacity of the two cracking units is 997 thousand tons of ethylene per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced Oriental Energy Company Ltd. will use Honeywell UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology for propane dehydrogenation (PDH) to meet growing demand for the production of polymer-grade propylene, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Oleflex unit is scheduled to start up in Maoming, Guangdong in 2022.

UOP will provide services, equipment, catalysts and adsorbents for the Maoming plant. The project marks Oriental Energy’s fourth C3 Oleflex unit, and the 44th award for C3 Oleflex technology in China, where demand continues to rise for propylene, the primary component in many plastic resins, films and fibers.

Since 2011, 68 of the last 92 dehydrogenation projects globally have been based on UOP technology, including many in China. Global production capacity of propylene from Oleflex technology currently stands at approximately 7.9 million metric tons per year.

“Longtime customers such as Oriental Energy continue to invest in UOP’s Oleflex technology because of its strong record for operational reliability and cost efficiency compared to other dehydrogenation technologies,” said Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager of UOP’s Process Technologies business. “We continue to see significant growth in China with the immense demand for propylene.”

UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology uses catalytic dehydrogenation to convert propane to propylene and is designed to have a lower cash cost of production and higher return on investment compared to competing dehydrogenation technologies. The Oleflex technology’s low-energy consumption, low-emissions and fully recyclable, platinum-alumina-based catalyst system also helps minimize impact on the environment. The independent reactor and regeneration design helps maximize operating flexibility and onstream reliability.

Nanjing-based Oriental Energy Company, Ltd. is one of the first companies in China to adopt on-purpose propylene technology. It previously has licensed three C3 Oleflex units, each at 660,000 metric tons a year, two of which are in operation with a third going into production this year. In addition to these three, two more units are planned.

As MRC reported earlier, China's Oriental Energy was to start up its new PDH plant in Ningbo in October 2020, after it was delayed from late June. The new PDH plant has the capacity to produce 660,000 mt/year of propylene.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures fell during the mid-morning trade in Asia Nov. 13, extending overnight losses, after the US Energy Information Administration data showed a large build in US crude inventories, while concerns over the progression of the coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on the market, reported S&P Global.

At 10:51 am Singapore time (0251 GMT), ICE Brent January crude futures were down 73 cents/b (1.68%) from the Nov. 12 settle to USD42.80/b, while the NYMEX December light sweet crude contract was down 83 cents/b (2.02%) at USD40.29/b. Both markers had fallen 0.62% and 0.80% on Nov. 12 to settle at USD43.53/b and USD41.12/b, respectively.

The downward trajectory of crude prices comes as data from the EIA showed that, amid an unseasonable pullback in refinery demand, commercial crude stocks had climbed 4.28 million barrels to 488.71 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 6. This large build in crude inventories came as a surprise to the market, with analysts having told S&P Global Platts earlier that they were expecting a 3 million-barrel draw in inventories in the same week.

The EIA data was also contrary to the data released by the American Petroleum Institute on Nov. 10, which had earlier boosted market sentiment by showing a 5.147 million-barrel decline in the week ended Nov. 6.

Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at AXI, said in a Nov. 13 note: "Unequivocally the market needed a comparable draw (from the EIA data as was seen in the API data) to keep the vaccine trade momentum going."

The EIA data was not all bearish, however, as it also indicated improved fundamentals in downstream oil markets, with gasoline inventories having declined 2.31 million barrels to close to a one-year low of 225.37 million barrels, and distillate inventories having declined 5.36 million barrels to 149.29 million barrels, a six-month low.

Additionally, the data showed that total products supplied, EIA's proxy for demand, had climbed 1.82 million b/d to an eight-month high of 20.18 million b/d, with gasoline demand climbing 430,000 b/d and distillate demand rising 290,000 b/d.

However, the bullish aspects of the EIA data release did not make much of an impact on the market, which is growing more anxious over the escalation of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, where states have re-introduced restrictions. COVID-19 infections in Japan reached a new daily high on Nov. 12, according to media reports, while most of Europe remains under some degree of lockdown.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the International Energy Agency said in its Nov. 12 report that global oil demand will plunge by 8.8 million b/d in 2020, a downward revision of 400,000 b/d from its previous forecast. This follows the OPEC's downward revisions of oil demand by 280,000 b/d for 2020 and by 580,000 b/d for 2021, made a day earlier.

The IEA said that although vaccines, like the one being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, may contribute to a recovery in oil demand in the second half of 2021, the near-term outlook remains sombre.

ANZ analysts echoed the above sentiment, as they said in a Nov. 13 note: "The outlook for crude oil demand has darkened because of new pandemic restrictions."

As MRC informed previously, global oil demand may have already peaked, according to BP's latest long-term energy outlook, as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner fuels.

Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could cut global oil demand growth by 40 per cent in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.

And in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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

ccording to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nouryon has launched a new version of its Expancel expandable microspheres targeted at speciality thin coatings applications. Expandable microspheres work as a filler and blowing agent to make products lighter and reduce overall costs, according to GV.

According to the company, the new Expancel Extra Small Microsphere (XSMS) line brings additional benefits to speciality thin coatings applications, such as improving the printability of thermal paper labels, tickets and receipts, as well as filling and upgrading genuine or artificial leather without sacrificing volume.

“Expancel XSMS will bring significant cost-saving and performance benefits to customers in the speciality coatings industry,” said Sylvia Winkel Pettersson, Vice President Expancel at Nouryon. “It can replace more costly raw materials while providing improved properties in the finished coatings. Furthermore, our on-site expansion solution offers notable sustainability benefits for customers. By reducing the need for transportation, they can lower their carbon dioxide emissions and, ultimately, lower their overall environmental impact.”

Expancel is already used in several traditional coatings applications, including cool roof coatings, where the high solar reflectance of the microspheres helps to decrease roof temperatures, reducing the need for air conditioning.

“The history of Expancel dates back 40 years when we started our first production unit at Sundsvall, Sweden,” said Johan Landfors, President of Technology Solutions at Nouryon. “We deliver total solutions, including product development support and on-site expansion systems for our customers worldwide. We are now expanding our position in the coatings industry with Expancel XSMS as the newest innovation in our portfolio of microspheres, which will provide additional important sustainability benefits to our customers.”

Nouryon completed an expansion of the unit in Sundsvall in 2019, and recently announced that it would build a facility in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the USA. It also produces Expancel in Brazil and China.

As MRC wrote previously, in February 2019, Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) announced that it would license its innovative continuous initiator dosing (CiD) technology to Karpatnaftochim, Ukraine’s largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer. Nouryon’s patented CiD technology allows PVC producers to increase reactor output by up to 40 percent, improve product quality, and make the production process intrinsically safer - all with minimum capital expenditure.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, lKarpatneftekhim plans to resume its PVC production by the middle of this week, after a scheduled shutdown for maintenance. Buyers siad November prices will be negotiated starting from this week. The Ukrainian producer is most likely to raise its PVC prices for the domestic market in line with prices in global markets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell UOP has announced that French energy company Total will utilize Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining process technology to produce renewable fuels, primarily for the aviation industry, at its Grandpuits platform at Seine-et-Marne in north central France, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Once completed, the bio-refinery will process 400,000 tons of feed per year, producing up to 170,000 tons of sustainable aviation fuel, 120,000 tons of renewable diesel and 50,000 tons of renewable naphtha for production of bioplastics.

UOP will provide technology licenses, basic engineering, specialty equipment, and catalysts for the project.

Total produces and markets fuels, natural gas and electricity. Based in Paris, the company is active in more than 130 countries. As you may be aware, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, the deployment of sustainable aviation fuels is one of the top priorities of the French government and part of its broader national commitment to tackle climate change.

I’ve included the full announcement below, along with an attached photo and the suggested caption, “Total will use Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining™ process technology to produce renewable jet fuel and diesel at its zero-crude platform at Seine-et-Marne in north central France."

We remind, Honeywell announced Zhenhua Petrochemical Co. Ltd will use Honeywell UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology for propane dehydrogenation to process 1 million metric tons per year of polymer-grade propylene for a proposed plant in Dongying City, Shandong Province, China.

As MRC reported earlier, in May, 2020, Honeywell announced that Enterprise Products Partners L.P. will use Honeywell UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology in its second propane dehydrogenation plant, called "PDH 2". Located near Mont Belvieu, Texas, PDH 2 will produce 750,000 metric tons per year of polymer-grade propylene as part of Enterprise’s expansion of propylene manufacturing capacity.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers" inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC