MOSCOW (MRC) -- Braskem says it has completed a USD10-million expansion of its innovation and technology center at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, according to Chemweek.
The expansion adds eight R&D labs, and equipment for developing technologies around catalysis, recycling, and 3D printing. This includes capabilities in catalysis and petrochemical process technologies, 3D printing research, as well as chromatography, polymer cracking and microscopy analyses.
"We have a clear value proposition when we make products with a lower carbon footprint or use plastic waste in a circular fashion,” says Gilfranque Leite, directory/innovation and technology at Braskem. “Our clients and brand owners have programs focused on these important areas, yet many don't have the in-house technology capabilities to do this R&D intensive work on their own. In partnering with Braskem, we can directly support them in achieving their sustainability goals.”
The expansion is also a part of Braskem’s broader innovation strategy, which is centered around developing technologies to support a carbon-neutral circular economy, the company says.
As MRC reported previously, Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem's 450,000 mt/year PP plant in LaPorte, Texas, along the Houston Ship Channel completed its initial commercial production, as per the company's statement as of Sept. 10. "The launch of commercial production at our new world-class PP production line in La Porte clearly affirms Braskem's position as the North American polypropylene market leader," Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich said in a statement. With a USD750 million investment, the new PP plant's construction started in October 2017 and was completed in June, 2020.
We remind that production at Braskem's new PP plant in the US was at 36,000 tonnes in October, close to the monthly production capacity of the plant of around 38,000 tonnes.
Braskem operates five other US PP plants in Texas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with a cumulative capacity of 1.57 million mt/year that the company acquired. The new plant in La Porte, Texas, is Braskem America's first PP new build.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
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