MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total Corbion PLA has awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a 100,000 tonne/year polylactic acid (PLA) project at Grandpuits, France, to Maire Tecnimont’s NextChem affiliate, said the company.
The plant, due to be operational in 2024, will be the first of its kind in Europe. It would make Total Corbion PLA the global market leader in PLA, firmly positioned to cater for the rapidly growing demand for Luminy PLA resins. Maire Tecnimont Group’s heritage in polymerization of traditional plastics combined with NextChem's portfolio of innovative solutions for green chemistry ensures the necessary know-how to manage this industrial initiative.
Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group and NextChem Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This award is a confirmation that our Group is a trusted and valued technological and engineering partner for large-scale, innovative and complex projects. We are proud to work with a Joint Venture of our long-time client Total to increase the availability of sustainable plastics in Europe."
Thomas Philipon, CEO of Total Corbion PLA, is pleased to launch this next stage in the process: "Signing this contract with NextChem is an important milestone as it reinforces our commitment to the global bioplastic market as the first company to launch commercial scale Lactic Acid to PLA capability in Europe. We are proud to enable our customers to propose sizeable solutions to the market and support the circular economy development."
Luminy PLA resins are biobased and made from annually renewable resources, offering a reduced carbon footprint versus many traditional plastics. At the end of its useful life, PLA products can be mechanically or chemically recycled. The biodegradable and compostable functionalities of PLA make it the material of choice for a wide range of markets and applications including fresh fruit packaging, food service ware, durable consumer goods, toys and 3D printing.The JV operates a 75,000 tonne/year PLA plant in Rayong, Thailand, that started up in 2018. Total announced in September last year that it will quit processing crude oil at the Grandpuits refinery and convert the site into a zero-crude platform for the production of sugar-based PLA and renewable fuels.
As per MRC, Hanwha Total Petrochemical (formerly Samsung Total Petrochemicals), a major South Korean petrochemicals manufacturer, resumed production at its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cracking facility in Daesan (Daesan, Sosan, South Korea) on April 14 after preventive maintenance and expansion. Repair work at these facilities of the cracking unit in Daesan, which can produce 310 thousand tons of ethylene and 120,000 tonnes of propylene per year, began on March 2 this year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, heads an industrial group which leads the global natural resource conversion market (downstream oil & gas plant engineering, with technological and executive expertise). Its subsidiary NextChem operates in the field of green chemicals and technologies in support of the energy transition. The Maire Tecnimont Group operates in approx. 45 countries, though approx. 50 operative companies and about 9,100 people.
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