DuPont awarded a major refining contract in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont) has been awarded the contract to supply the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) with a second STRATCO alkylation unit; this time for the Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Qilu), as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Sinopec Qilu company is a large-scale refiner and producer of petrochemicals, fertilizers and chemical fiber in Zibo, Shandong Province. In order to comply with the China V standard of 10 ppm sulfur content for fuel, Sinopec commissioned DuPont for the license, engineering and equipment of a STRATCO® alkylation unit with 400 Mtpy (10.300 Mbpd) alkylate capacity.

The STRATCO® alkylation unit will enable Sinopec Qilu to generate low-sulfur, high-octane, low-RVP alkylate with zero olefins that meets the criteria of the China 5 standard. Startup is targeted for mid-2018.

“Due to extreme plot space limitations within the Sinopec Qilu refinery, DuPont has designed the STRATCO® alkylation unit with the innovative Model 74 Contactor reactors. This is the first application of the Model 74 Contactor™ reactors, which were developed to reduce the number of reactors in an alkylation unit. This not only reduces the amount of plot space required, but also results in an overall lower capital cost while offering the extremely high reliability and on-stream time that refiners have come to expect from the STRATCO alkylation technology,” said Kevin Bockwinkel, global business manager, STRATCO® Alkylation Technology.

Fundamentally, the Model 74 Contactor reactor is the same as commercially operating Contactor reactors in service throughout the world. The Model 74 Contactor reactor includes the latest improvements and each has a volume of 68.1 m3 (18,000 gallons) while the standard size Contactor reactor (Model 63) has a volume of 43.5 m3 (11,500 gallons) per reactor. Both reactor models are commercially available from DuPont.

"Sinopec is driving gasoline and diesel production to new, lower-emission specifications at its refineries," said Eli Ben-Shoshan, global business leader, DuPont Clean Technologies. "DuPont is pleased to be able to assist Sinopec with a custom-designed solution for its site to produce cleaner fuel."

The Sinopec Tianjin Company (TPCC) had previously awarded a contract to DuPont for a STRATCO alkylation unit at its oil refinery in the Tianjin Binhai New Area district in northern China. The Tianjin alkylation unit startup is scheduled for mid-2018.

Licensed and designed by DuPont, the STRATCO alkylation technology is the established global leader in the industry with over 90 units licensed worldwide and more than 850 Mbpd (33.3 Mtpy) of installed capacity. For over 80 yr, the STRATCO technology has helped refineries safely to produce cleaner-burning fuel with high octane, a low Rvp, low sulfur and zero olefins.

As MRC informed before, in late June 2017, chemical companies DuPont and the Dow Chemical Company reached a proposed agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division that will enable the firms to advance the proposed merger of equals, which is to take place on 31 August, 2017. By that time, Dow and DuPont had already secured clearance in several jurisdictions, including approvals in the US, Europe, Brazil and China.

DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SayanskKhimPlast (Irkutsk region) began a gradual resumption of its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production after shutdown for a scheduled turnaround, according to the ICIS-MRC's Price report.

The plant's representative said works on the resumption of PVC production have begun since 25 August after a long outage for maintenance. The outage at SayanskKhimPlast was quite long and lasted for about 30 days.

At the same time, the forced shutdown at Bashkir Soda Company's PVC production capacities continued. The Baskhir plant had to stop its production of resin on 16 August because of problems with supply of ethylene. The resumption of production will take place in the next few days. The plant's annual production capacity is 240,000 tonnes.

As reported earlier, complex tests, which confirmed the possibility of producing 350,000 tonnes of PVC, 216,000 tonnes of caustic soda and 183,600 tonnes of chlorine per year, were completed at all SayanskKhimplast's production facilities in June.

JSC "Sayanskkhimplast" (Irkutsk region), established in 1998, is a complex of large-capacity chlororganic production facilities connected in a single production cycle. SayanskKhimPlast produces PVC, caustic soda and bleach. After commissioning of RusVinyl's PVC production (Nizhny Novgorod region), SayanskKhimPlast became Russia's second largest PVC producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiyo Vinyl has started turnaround at its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant at Chiba, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the company has undertaken a planned shutdown at the plant last week. The plant is expected to remain off-line for about four weeks.

Located in Chiba in Japan, the PVC plant has a production capacity of 90,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, last year, Taiyo Vinyl is likely shut its PVC plant in Chiba for a maintenance turnaround on August 17, 2016. The plant remained shut for around four weeks.

The company also has another PVC plant in Yokkaichi, Japan, with the capacity of 310,000 mt/year.

Taiyo Vinyl Corporation, a subsidiary of Tosoh Group, is one of Japan's largest manufacturers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The plant in Chiba is one of the company's key assests, which supplies 50% of its products to the domestic market. The company also produces PVC at the plants in Yokkaichi and Osaka with the annual capacity of 310,000 and 150,000 tonnes, respectively.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Private investment firm SK Capital Partners has announced it will reinvest in Switzerland-based specialty chemicals provider Archroma to support its growth, said Chemicals-technology.

Archroma has completed an offering of its credit facilities including a multi-currency revolving credit establishment, a facility for capital expenditures, and term loans.

SK Capital Partners managing director Aaron Davenport said: "We believe Archroma is in a strong position to be a leading market consolidator in these fragmented sectors by executing on a number of attractive acquisition opportunities that can leverage the company’s existing platform and technology base.

"Our new equity investment and recapitalised balance sheet will provide the financial and operational flexibility needed to continue building Archroma’s competitiveness and market position." "Archroma was initially acquired by SK Capital in 2013."

Archroma was initially acquired by SK Capital in 2013. The firm created three non-core divisions within Archroma and established them as an independent and integrated company.

It delivers performance and colour solutions to meet customer needs in markets such as branded and performance textiles; packaging and paper; and coatings, adhesives, and sealants.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Austria's Transport Minister Joerg Leichtfried said on Tuesday he had agreed with carmakers to update the software of 600,000 diesel cars to reduce pollution following a similar deal struck in Germany after a large-scale emissions scandal, said Reuters.

Leichtfried said the deal also included extra payments to buyers of more environmentally friendly cars. He said that for potential buyers of electric cars all available financial help could add up to around 10,000 euros ($11,750) per vehicle.

The exact amount of incentives, which will come in addition to existing government sweeteners for e-car buyers, will be decided and paid by the carmakers depending on the model of the vehicle exchanged for an old car, the spokesman of Austrian car importers association Guenther Kerle said.

The Transport Ministry said representatives of Mercedes-Benz , BMW, Kia, Ford, Renault , Porsche, Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Hyundai, Mitsubishi Motors and Opel attended the meeting. VW, Mercedes, Renault and possibly BMW will undertake the software updates, and the others will just take part in the incentives program, the ministry said.

German politicians and car bosses agreed earlier this month to overhaul engine software on 5.3 million diesel cars to try to repair the industry's battered reputation. However, environmentalists said the plan - almost two years after Volkswagen admitted to cheating US diesel emissions tests-was too little, too late.

The Austrian software update, which would take until spring next year and which carmakers say can reduce toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by 25%-30%, is the same as in Germany, Kerle said.

Critics of the German plan have said software updates would only result in a cut of about 2%-3% of emissions.
MRC