Haldor Topsoe technology selected for revamp to renewable diesel production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The project will convert an existing hydrocracker for the production of low-carbon renewable diesel from soybean oil, resulting in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to hydrocarbon diesel, said Hydrocabonprocessing.

The renewable diesel is expected to meet the ASTM D975 diesel specification and qualify for programs such as the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

"By leveraging assets already in place, particularly the existing hydrocracker unit and underutilized hydrogen plant at our Wynnewood refinery, we believe we can deliver one of the lowest-cost renewable diesel projects in the industry,” says Dave Lamp, CEO & President of CVR Energy, Inc.

“We are very proud that CVR Energy, Inc. has chosen HydroFlex™ for this significant revamp project. This proven technology is the preferred choice for refiners leading the industry adaptation of renewable fuels, and it is a privilege to add yet another US project to our portfolio in line with Topsoe’s vision to be recognized as the world leader in carbon emission reduction technologies by 2024,” says Henrik Rasmussen, Managing Director of Haldor Topsoe, The Americas.

Topsoe’s HydroFlex™ is the industry-leading technology for production of renewable jet and diesel. This commercially proven technology provides refiners with lower CAPEX, lower OPEX, and better carbon intensity (CI) score. HydroFlex™ can be deployed in both grassroots units and revamps for co-processing or stand-alone applications.

As MRC reported earlier, Braskem, the largest petrochemical company in the Americas and a world leader in the production of biopolymers, and Denmark-based Haldor Topsoe, a global leader in supply of catalysts, technology, and services for the chemical and refining industries, announced in November 2020 that they had achieved their first-ever demo-scale production of bio-based monoethylene glycol (MEG).

MEG is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

As per MRC's ScanPlast, Russia's estimated PET consumption reached 61,110 tonnes in November 2020, up by 1% year on year. Overall PET consumption in Russia reached 648,110 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, down by 18% year of year.

Haldor Topsoe is a global leader in supply of catalysts, technology, and services to the chemical and refining industries. Topsoe aims to be the global leader within carbon emission reduction technologies by 2024. By perfecting chemistry for a better world, we enable our customers to succeed in the transition towards renewable energy. Topsoe is headquartered in Denmark and serves customers around the globe.



MRC

Repsol to supply Berry circular polyolefins

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Berry Global Group, Evansville, Indiana, has announced that Madrid-based Repsol, its longtime supplier, will supply it with circular resins, according to Recycling Today.

The Spanish multienergy global company will supply Berry with International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus-certified circular polyolefins from its Repsol Reciclex range. According to a news release from Berry Global, these polyolefins are obtained by advanced recycling, enabled by the adoption of new chemical recycling technologies, of postconsumer plastic scrap not suitable for traditional recycling.

As a result of the agreement, Berry says it will procure food-grade polypropylene (PP) for food and health care packaging. The packaging company will initially use the materials in manufacturing at its European packaging facilities.

Berry reports that Repsol has certified all its petrochemical complexes to produce circular polyolefins under the ISCC Plus certification, which guarantees the traceability of the plastic scrap used at the source. At the same time, Repsol applies the latest technology to ensure the circular polyolefins have the same quality as virgin polyolefins. Additionally, Berry and Repsol deem advanced recycling “as complementary to traditional mechanical recycling and as a critical component of their respective circular economy strategies.”

“We continue to utilize new and innovative methods to create more environmentally sustainable packaging and are proud to partner with like-minded suppliers in these efforts,” says Jean-Marc Galvez, president of Berry’s Consumer Packaging International division. “By recovering and diverting plastic that would have otherwise been sent to landfill or incineration, we are working towards our common goal of promoting a circular economy.”

“At Repsol, we are continuously working on different alternatives to offer our clients materials with recycled content that meet the different demands for their specific markets, especially those for high added value applications. With this recent alliance with Berry, we also reinforce our ambition to recycle the equivalent of 20 percent of our polyolefins production,” says Rafael Jimenez, Polyolefins Business Unit director at Repsol.

Berry reports that it is ahead of schedule for its Impact 2025 sustainability strategy. The company has set a goal of incorporating 10 percent recycled content across its fast-moving consumer goods packaging. Repsol has also set a target to become a net zero company by 2050 and has had a circular economy strategy since 2016 that has been applied throughout its entire value chain.

As MRC reported earlier, Repsol shut down its cracker in Tarragona (Spain) for maintenance in the fourth quarter of 2019. The turnaround at this steam cracker, which produces 702,000 mt/year of ethylene and 372,000 mt/year of propylene, was pushed back from Q3 2019. The exact dates of maintenance works were not disclosed.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC

Yansab plans February turnarounds for EG, olefins plants in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yansab plans February turnarounds for EG, olefins plants in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, said Chemweek.

700,000-metric tons/year EG plant to shut down 1 February for 21 days; olefins plant to shut on 5 February for 10 days. The firm, which is majority-owned by SABIC, intends to bring its ethylene glycol and olefis production plant down for 21 and 10 days on the 1 February and 5 February, respectively, the company said in a filing on Saudi exchange Tadawul.

The company has production capacity of 1.38m tonnes/year of ethylene and 400,000 tonnes/year of propylene at the site and 770,000 tonnes/year of ethylene glycols.

As MRC reported earlier, Yansab shut its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) units for maintenance in early February, 2018. The planned outage was to remain in force for around 6-7 weeks. Located in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia the HDPE and LLDPE units have a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year each.

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

Yansab is the most recent SABIC, (Saudi Basic Industries Corp), affiliate in Saudi Arabia, and will be the largest Sabic petrochemical complex. It will have an annual capacity exceeding 4 million metric tons (MT) of petrochemical products including: 1.3 million MT (metric-tons) of ethylene; 400,000 MT of propylene; 900,000 MT of polyethylene; 400,000 MT of polypropylene; 700,000 MT of ethylene glycol; 250,000 MT of benzene, xylene and toluene, and 100,000 MT of butene-1 and butene-2.
MRC

Chinese Jan-Feb crude throughput may remain at high levels despite slow demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's crude throughput will likely remain at relatively high levels over January-February despite the slowdown in domestic fuel consumption for the Lunar New Year due to the resurgence in COVID-19 spread, as refiners aim to clear their hefty feedstock stockpiles and make full use of the country's sufficient refined product storage space, reported S&P Global.

"Sufficient oil product storage space and hefty crude imports in January/February allow and force Chinese refineries to boost throughput prior to maintenance season in March-May," a Beijing-based analyst said.

S&P Global Platts' data showed that average run rate at 39 refineries under the four big state-owned oil barrels - Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC and Sinochem - is at 80.3% in January, up from 78.2% in December.

The privately-held integrated complex Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) and Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical kept their utilization unchanged from December at 107% and 70%, respectively.

Meanwhile, 45 small-sized private sector refineries in Shandong province slightly lifted their operation rate to 73.8% so far till Jan. 21, compared with an average of 73% in December, according to local information provider JLC.

These suggest that China's crude oil throughput is likely to rise from the December level, which was 14.19 million b/d, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Platts historical data over January 2012-January 2021 also showed that January run rates were usually one to two percentage points higher than December due to less maintenance and better oil product stocking demand from trading houses for Spring Festival travel rush.

Sinopec's refiners in eastern and southern China said they have cleared most of their oil product stocks in December when sales were good, so that they don't have an inventory pressure.

NBS data showed that the country's throughput in December retreated 0.5% to 14.19 million b/d from the record high of 14.26 million b/d in November. The bureau will release throughput data for January-February in March.

This allows the Sinopec refineries which resumed from maintenance to compensate the throughput reduction in those affected by COVID-19 resurgence in north China, and push the group's average utilization to hit 85% in January, rising about three percentage points from December.

Moreover, the coming 2021 maintenance season will also encourage refineries to grow oil product stocks, which will be kicked off on Feb. 20 by Sinopec's Jiujiang Petrochemical and followed by CNOOC's Huizhou Petrochemical on March 4. More importantly, "state-owned refineries have rooms to export oil products to offset inventory pressure too," the Beijing-based analyst quoted above said.

In the independent refining sector, the small-scale refineries have to maintain throughput to offset crude inventory pressure amid hefty arrivals in January despite the fact that slow demand and high crude prices have narrowed their refining margin, refinery sources said.

These refineries are set to bring in more crude barrels in January when they gain new crude import quotas for year 2021, following their inflows falling to an eight-month low in December.

Data from intelligence firm Kpler showed that crude arrivals in Shandong province, home of small-scale independent refineries, amounted at 4.42 million b/d in January, rebounding sharply by 53.6% from December.

As a result, crude inventory in the province is expected to rise to 219.29 million barrels in January from the four-month low of 212.70 million barrels in December.

Despite governments taking measures to avoid COVID-19 spread by cooling down Spring Festival Travel rush, the negative impact on transportation fuel demand - mainly gasoline and jet fuel - is limited compared to the same period during 2020.

"It is very unlikely to repeat the demand damages in last year. There is not much room for downward adjustment of the demand forecast for January and February this year," a London-based analyst said.

S&P Global Platts Analytics projected China's gasoline demand at about 3.4 million b/d in January-February, up 20% year on year but 5.5% below the level in the same period of 2019.

Jet fuel demand projection, however, remained 20% below the level in 2019 at about 745,000 b/d in the first two months of 2021, slightly down even from the 760,000 b/d in the same months in 2020.

Number of the country's new COVID-19 cases fell to below 100 since Jan. 25, followed by 13 days in January that registered over 100 new cases.

To prevent the spread, several cities and towns in the northern part of China have been locked down in January. Even in the low-risk regions in the south, the government has called for citizens to stay locally during the coming Lunar New Year holidays, when transportation fuel demand generally picks up.

As MRC reported before, in January, 2021, Wood secured a contract valued at over USD120 million with Sinopec Hainan Refining and Chemical Limited Company (Sinopec) to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to expand its refinery development in the Hainan Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in South China. Once completed, the ethylene renovation and expansion project will produce up to one million tonnes of ethylene derivatives and refined oil on an annual basis and is expected to boost economic growth in China’s downstream sector by more than 100 billion yuan (USD14.1 billion). Output from the Hainan FTZ will serve ethylene demand across China and globally.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC

North America chemical rail strength continues

MOSCOW (MRC) -- During the week ended 23 January, chemical railcar in North America totaled 45,944 carloads, up 4.5% year-over-year (YOY) and down 3.6% from the previous week, according to Chemweek with reference to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

On a four-week basis, volume increased 5.2% from 2020 and 3.2% from 2019 (chart). For the year to date, chemical railcar traffic in North America is up 6.2% from 2020 and 4.8% from 2019.

Chemical railcar traffic in the United States contributed 32,140 carloads to the total, up 2.7% YOY and down 5.3% from the previous week. For the year to date, US chemical railcar traffic was up 4.9%.

Canadian chemical rail traffic totaled 12,852 carloads, up 9.0% YOY and up 1.5% from the previous week. For the year to date, Canadian chemical railcar traffic was up 10.4%.

Chemical railcar traffic in Mexico totaled 952 carloads, a YOY increase of 7.8% and a sequential decrease of 9.8%. For the year to date, Mexican chemical railcar traffic was up 1.5%.

As MRC informed previously, during the week ended 16 January, chemical railcar traffic in North America increased 8.8% year-over-year (YOY) on gains throughout the region. Volume totaled 47,660 carloads, down 1.9% from the previous week, according to data released on 20 January by AAR. On a four-week basis, volume increased 3.9% from 2020 and 1.6% from 2019 (chart). For the year to date, chemical railcar traffic in North America is up 7.0%.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in November 2020 by 9.5% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased in the first eleven months of 2020 by 6.6% year on year, according to Rosstat's data. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the January-November 2020 output. November production of polymers in primary form rose to 896,000 tonnes from 852,000 tonnes in October. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 9,240,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 17.1% year on year.
MRC