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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Braskem and Encina
Development Group (Encina; The Woodlands, Texas) have agreed to develop a
long-term relationship aimed at establishing a supply of circular propylene
feedstock from Encina’s planned new post-consumer plastics recycling plant in
the US, reported Chemweek.
Encina
plans to break ground on the facility in the second half of 2021, although the
location has not yet been given. Once completed, the plant will process 175,000
metric tons/year of waste plastic into over 90,000 metric tons/year of recycled
chemicals, the companies say in a joint statement. The facility will be designed
to have its capacity expanded to 350,000 metric tons/year of waste plastic in
future phases, they say. It will leverage Encina’s proprietary technology that
converts mixed plastics to chemicals via catalytic pyrolysis.
Braskem
will work with Encina to develop the necessary logistics, product quality, and
certifications for the recycled propylene feedstock that Braskem will then use
in the production of recycled polypropylene (PP) materials in applications such
as food packaging, consumer, and hygiene products, according to the companies.
Braskem and Encina intend to develop a formal supply agreement prior to the
project’s financing approval in 2021, they say.
Encina said in July it
was planning to build a USD255-million facility for the conversion of waste
plastic to benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), with other additional plants in
the pipeline, and a possible IPO within the next two years.
“Encina’s
technology and this important project will divert thousands of tons of
hard-to-recycle plastic from landfills. As the North American leader in
polypropylene, Braskem is actively looking to purchase sustainable propylene
feedstock that will allow us to increase both recycled and renewable-sourced
products in our portfolio,” says Braskem Americas CEO Mark Nikolich. The
agreement will help Braskem’s clients to meet their aggressive recycled content
goals in the years ahead, he says.
Braskem, a founding member of the
Polypropylene Recycling Coalition formed earlier this year, recently announced
sales targets for growing its recycled products portfolio to 300,000 metric
tons/year by 2025 and 1 million metric tons/year by 2030. It is also a founding
member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.
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 978,870 tonnes in
January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports
plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of
exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
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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