MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sumitomo Chemical has concluded an agreement with Kazanorgsintez (KOS), in the Republic of Tatarstan of the Russian Federation, to license out its high-pressure production process for low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) to boost KOS’s polyethylene production, said the company.
KOS started manufacturing polyethylene in 1965. Among the leading Russian petrochemical companies, it is now one of the largest domestic producers of polyethylene. With the goal of increasing production capacity and further diversifying the product mix at its manufacturing site in Kazan, the capital city of Tatarstan, KOS is removing part of its existing manufacturing facilities and installing a state-of-the-art facility. For this facility, KOS has adopted Sumitomo Chemical’s high-pressure production process. The new facility will have an annual production capacity of 100KTA.
Sumitomo Chemical’s high pressure polyethylene technology is a proprietary autoclaving polyethylene production process, which is switchable between LDPE and EVA in one manufacturing facility. For EVA, a wide range of product grades can be accommodated by adjusting the spike level of vinyl acetate. The technology is also energy efficient because of its high monomer reaction efficiency, and offers excellent operational stability. These points were highly regarded and led to the conclusion of this license agreement.
Sumitomo Chemical continues to improve the business portfolio of its Petrochemicals & Plastics Sector through the global expansion of its technology licensing activities and address issues faced by the petrochemical industry.
As MRC reported earlier, in December 2020, Sumitomo Chemical and Axens signed a license agreement of ethanol-to-ethylene technology Atol for Sumitomo Chemical’s waste-to-polyolefins project in Japan. In the project, to promote circular economy, Axens’ Atol technology will transform ethanol produced from waste into polymer-grade ethylene that will be polymerized in Sumitomo Chemical’s assets into polyolefin, a key product in the petrochemical industry.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC