MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland's biggest refiner PKN Orlen is exploring ways to produce polymers using carbon dioxide, its director of innovation and new technology development Arkadiusz Majoch said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
New technology to capture, store, reuse or replace carbon pollution is being explored around the world, with some companies working on methods of converting the greenhouse gas into products such as plastic, soap, or fabric.
"Right now we are finishing some research in the laboratory and already we started purchasing pilot plans where CO2 will be the raw material...and at the end, we are expecting to have some polymers," Majoch told a panel during a conference on carbon capture and utilization (CCU).
He said Orlen had a budget of more than two billion zlotys (USD509.2 million) to spend over the next nine years on developing and implementing technology across the group's companies and was looking to implement the results of the polymer pilot at one of them, possibly in Plock in central Poland.
All of the group's more than 500 projects qualified as decarbonisation or related to decarbonisation, with some "strictly dedicated" to CCU, Majoch added when asked how much of the budget would be ringfenced for CCU.
Under its 2030 strategy, Orlen plans to reduce CO2 emissions from existing refining and petrochemical assets by 20% and by 33% from its power generation business. It has also set a 2050 target date for achieving a net zero carbon footprint.
As per MRC, Orlen Unipetrol (part of PKN Orlen), a major Czech producer of petrochemical products, will expand the capacity of its steam cracker in Litvinov (Czech Republic) by installing a new furnace. The new cracking unit will be built by Technip Energies in Zaluzi, the largest chemical plant in the Czech Republic, and is due to be commissioned in 2022. Orlen is investing over 700 mln Polish zlotys (Zl) in the project.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year.
Czech Orlen Unipetrol is a joint stock company that deals with oil refining and production of petrochemical products in the Czech Republic and Central Europe. It is one of the ten largest Czech companies in terms of revenue. The company was founded in 1994 and since 2004 has been part of PKN Orlen, which owns 94.05% of the shares in the company.
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