Arkema to increase global oleochemical capacity by 50%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema will be expanding its oleochemicals capacity by 50%, said the company.

New capacity for Arkema's bio-based portfolio is currently under construction on Jurong Island in Singapore, and scheduled to come onstream in mid-2022, complementing the company's existing production facilities in Marseille, France. Products set to be produced include C7, C11 and C18 materials, comprising n-heptanoic acid, n-heptaldehyde, undecylenic acid and esterol A.

These materials are used in a variety of markets including cosmetics, flavours and fragrances, lubricants, construction and pharmaceutical applications. Arkema is expanding capacity in line with growing demand for sustainable bio-based materials.

We are committed to driving sustainable castor bean farming and to expanding our global supply capability in concert with our customers,” said Arkema general manager for advanced bio-materials Philippe Marthet. "The expansion is completely consistent with our strategy to serve each region from within the region and its timing is welcomed by the market, which shows a strong demand for bio-based specialties."

As per MRC, Arkema is further increasing its fluoropolymer production capacities in Changshu, China, by 35% in 2022. The increase in capacity is scheduled to come on stream before the end of 2022, the company said in a statement. Financial and overall capacity details of the expansion project were not disclosed.

Trinseo completed the acquisition of Arkema's PMMA business for EUR1.14 billion. The EUR1.14 billion deal was announced in December and was expected to be completed by mid-2021. The company has seven PMMA plants, four in Europe and three in North America. Products are marketed under the Plexiglas brands in the Americas and Altuglas in the rest of the world.

Arkema is one of the world's leading chemical manufacturers headquartered in Colombes (near Paris, France). Founded in 2004 as a result of the restructuring of the French oil company Total, Arkema, with a turnover of EUR6.5 billion, has operations in 40 countries, 10 research centers around the world, and 85 factories in Europe, North America and Asia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that its subsidiary Tecnimont S.p.A. has signed with Abu Dhabi Polymers Company Ltd. (Borouge) three EPC contracts relating to the world-class fourth expansion phase (Borouge 4) of the Ruwais polyolefins complex in Ruwais, located about 240 km west of Abu Dhabi City (Abu Dhabi, UAE), said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Borouge is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world’s major oil and gas companies and a leading diversified energy and petrochemicals group wholly owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and Austria based Borealis, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions. The overall value of the three contracts, awarded on the basis of a competitive bidding process, is approximately USD3.5 bn.

The three EPC Lump Sum turnkey contracts relate to the execution of three packages of the Borouge 4 project: the “polyolefin units package”, which includes two polyethylene units with a capacity of 700,000 tpy each, and 1-hexene unit; the “cross-linkable polyethylene unit package”; the “utilities and offsites package”, which includes the utilities and offsites units for the whole Borouge 4 project. The project’s scope of work entails complete engineering services, equipment and material supply, erection and construction activities, commissioning and start up assistance. The completion in expected by 2025. Once the project is completed, the Ruwais complex will be the world’s largest single-site polyolefin facility.

Maire Tecnimont Group has been supporting the UAE to create value by developing its energy transformation industry since the late 90s, with the first Borouge polyolefin complex (Borouge 1) completed in 2001. After three additional expansion projects in 2007, 2010 and 2018 (Borouge 2, Borouge 3, and PP5, respectively), the Group has completed the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) services for the Borouge 4 project in 2020. Maire Tecnimont Group, leveraging its NextPlant portfolio of digital solutions, actively worked right from the FEED stage with Borouge’s team to transform their business requirements into executable digital initiatives: this will ensure excellent EPC execution and improve the operation and maintenance of the new facilities since their inception, in order to make Borouge 4 a “future-ready” industrial complex.

As per MRC, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that its subsidiaries Tecnimont Planung & Industrieanlagenbau GmbH and MT Russia LLC have been awarded by Kazanorgsintez PJSC (KOS) an EP contract (Engineering and Procurement) for the execution of a low ensity polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) plant, to be implemented inside the existing KOS facilities, located in Kazan, in Tatarstan (Russian Federation). KOS is one of Russia's largest polyethylene (PE) producers, supplying its products to 36 countries worldwide. The contract signing ceremony was held in Maire Tecnimont Group’s Milan headquarters and attended by KOS General Director Farid Minigulov and Maire Tecnimont Group Chief Executive Officer Pierroberto Folgiero, together with several top executives of both companies.

As MRC reported earlier, Kazanorgsintez (part of the TAIF group) plans to reconstruct reactor B of the low-density polyethylene (HDPE) production and processing plant.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil's Baytown chemical expansion project will include a linear alpha olefins (LAO) unit and a solution polymer unit (SPU). Worley has completed the engineering and procurement phases of the offsite expansion project and will now deliver construction outside the battery limits for the new units, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The LAO unit will have an estimated production capacity of around 350,000 tpy. The SPU will produce around 400,000 metric t of polymers per year, including Vistamaxx performance polymers.

This construction comprises all the interconnecting process and utility streams piping, tie-ins, equipment, and the electrical and instrumentation connections required to integrate the new units into the existing complex.

The LAO and SPU units are expected to start up in 2023.

“We look forward to constructing this specialty chemicals project on the US Gulf Coast for ExxonMobil,” said Brad Van de Veen, President Americas Field Services at Worley. “Having executed the engineering and procurement for the project, it means a lot to us to carry that through to the construction phase - a full EPC execution.”

As MRC reported earlier, ExxonMobil plans to build its first, large-scale plastic waste advanced recycling facility in Baytown, Texas, and is expected to start operations by year-end 2022. By recycling plastic waste back into raw materials that can be used to make plastic and other valuable products, the technology could help address the challenge of plastic waste in the environment. A smaller, temporary facility, is already operational and producing commercial volumes of certified circular polymers that will be marketed by the end of this year to meet growing demand.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world"s oil and about 2% of the world"s energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company LANXESS is now operating another Coperion line to produce Polyamide 6, Polyamide 66 and Polybutylenterephthalate (PBT) at its Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany, location, making significant steps toward a new throughput range, said the company.

With this technology, constructed around the high-performance ZSK 92 Mc18 twin screw extruder, LANXESS is producing demanding compounds at throughputs never achieved before. To reach such high output and maintain very good product quality, Coperion equipped the entire system with special features that ensure a high degree of automation, a crucial requirement for this developer and provider of high-performance compounds. Among these features is the ASC strand conveying system from Coperion Pelletizing Technology which automatically conveys polymer strands from the twin screw extruder discharge to the pelletizer. The entire system, built around the ZSK 92 Mc18, is one of several Coperion lines that LANXESS operates in Krefeld-Uerdingen.

Coperion has designed this compounding line as a complete turnkey solution for LANXESS — from engineering to commissioning. From state-of-the-art raw material feeding, to conveying, compounding, pelletizing and classifying technology, Coperion seamlessly synchronized every one of the system’s process steps with each other and logistically integrated them into one steel construction, forming the basis for the compounding system's fully automated operation. Following a short startup process, its high performance capacity can be fully exploited. Moreover, Coperion designed this compounding line for LANXESS to make optimal use of available space and to assure good accessibility to individual components, as well as short walking distances for operating personnel.

Frank Lechner, General Manager Process Technology and Research & Development of the Polymer Division at Coperion, speaks of his complete satisfaction with the system: “We were able to pour all of our expertise in complete systems into this solution for LANXESS. A lot of our spirit of development has gone into every single process step. We are very proud to see how all these technologies intermesh successfully, and that LANXESS can fully exploit the performance potential of our system to manufacture their polyamide compounds."

As per MRC, LANXESS is continuing the systematic expansion of its production for synthetic iron oxide pigments. The company is the only supplier worldwide to produce these pigments using the Laux process. Specialty chemicals company LANXESS has expanded its capacity for black synthetic iron oxide pigments at its Krefeld-Uerdingen site by more than 5,000 metric tons per year.

Earlier it was reported that in March 2018 LANXESS put into operation a new compounding line at the plant in Krefeld-Uerdingen (Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany). The company notes that it has invested EUR7 million in a new production line that will produce technical plastics such as polyamide 6 (PA6), polyamide 66 (PA66) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). The capacity of the new line is 10 thousand tons per year.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals concern with a turnover of EUR7.2 billion in 2018. The group employs approximately 15,400 people in 33 countries. Currently, the concern includes 60 manufacturing enterprises. LANXESS's core business is the development, production and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. The concern is included in the lists of the world's leading sustainability indices: the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Versalis, Eni’s chemical company, has agreed to license the continuous mass technology for a 70 KTY ABS unit to Supreme Petrochem Ltd. a leading Indian polystyrene (PS) and expandable polystyrene (EPS) producer, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The unit will be built in the Amdoshi - Wangani, District Raigad, in Maharashtra state, India.

This state-of-the-art technology will produce styrenic polymers with a low carbon footprint owing to reduced emissions and energy consumption. Market applications of the technology include the automotive industry, household appliances, the electronics sector, medical appliances and furniture.

The license agreement confirms the primary role of Versalis in styrenics and strengthens its position in the Asian market, an area which is undergoing a strong expansion in the petrochemical field and is increasingly focused on selecting more sustainable technologies with a low environmental impact.

Versalis will be supported by Eurotecnica Contractors and Engineers SpA, with which the company has recently signed a cooperation agreement within the styrenics business. Eurotecnica, which will support Versalis in supplying the basic engineering design package, is an Italian company founded in 1962 and part of the Proman Group. The company specializes in providing engineering services relevant to proprietary technologies with established leadership in the Asian market, in melamine technology.

As MRC informed earlier, in September 2021, the “Cracker of the Future” consortium announced two new members and accelerating the development of a game-changing technology for the electrification of the steam cracking process. This enables a revolutionary decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. The consortium announced two new member companies: Repsol and Versalis (Eni) have recently joined the consortium. Together with founding members Borealis (member of the OMV Group), BP, and TotalEnergies SE, the consortium covers ~1/3 of the European Union’s steam cracking capacity with units in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, ABS imports into Russia rose in the first ten months of 2021 by 15% year on year to 33,500 tonnes from 29,100 tonnes a year earlier.

Versalis is a technology leader in the chemical industry and one of the largest producers of polymers in Europe. It has a wide portfolio of proprietary technologies and consolidated experience as a licensor leveraging its extensive R&D, lab & pilot plant testing capabilities and full-scale plant operations experience.

Eni is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
MRC