S&B selected as contractor for New Hope Energy advanced plastics recycling unit

S&B Engineers and Constructors (S&B) signs a multi-year master service agreement to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for New Hope Energy’s plastics pyrolysis unit, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The initial project under this partnership is the expansion in Tyler, Texas. The expansion will add 420 metric tons per day of capacity to convert plastic waste to chemical feedstocks in the existing facility. This expansion will allow the Tyler plant to divert more than 300 million pounds of plastic waste from landfills annually. The project also represents a long-term alliance between S&B and New Hope Energy, an environmental technology company developing advanced chemical recycling systems.

"We selected the S&B team for this significant project because of their deep technical expertise, fully-integrated EPC capabilities and 50+ year history of successfully delivering industrial-scale facilities,” said Ron Nussle, COO and President of New Hope Energy. “We look forward to the long-term program and collaborative partnership with S&B and its highly developed supply chain as we grow our advanced chemical recycling systems to create a circular economy that moves the U.S. toward a sustainable future."

S&B will provide full EPC services for the pyrolysis unit expansion to industrial-scale using the Lummus New Hope Plastic Pyrolysis Technology to process plastic waste into renewable chemical feedstocks. “We’re excited to partner with New Hope to boost its advanced recycling capacity to create solutions for plastic waste,” said Ray Sherman, President of S&B’s Energy Transition, Power and Industrial business unit. “S&B remains at the forefront of energy transition projects because of our engineering expertise and the ability to safely execute on time and within budget."

The project began in late 2021, with construction completion and commissioning expected in early 2024.

As per MRC, INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has announced the introduction of its new Styrolution PS ECO 260 MR85 grade containing mechanically recycled post-consumer waste. This grade is available across markets in Asia at commercial scale with immediate effect. The new Styrolution PS ECO 260 MR85 contains 85 percent recycled post-consumer content from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). It offers identical mechanical properties as virgin HIPS equivalent, including very good mechanical performance, consistency and high fluidity, making it an excellent drop-in solution for application developers in the household and electronics industries.
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The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), oil major BP and Abu Dhabi future energy company Masdar have joined forces to develop clean hydrogen and technology hubs, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Announcing their new-energy partnerships, ADNOC said the H2Teesside low-carbon hydrogen project with BP had moved into the design phase.

Other partnerships include a feasibility study for a low-carbon hydrogen project in the UAE and an expanded ADNOC-BP-Masdar partnership to explore the production of sustainable aviation fuels from municipal waste and green hydrogen in Abu Dhabi.

Masdar and BP will also explore potential collaboration on HyGreen Teesside, BP's green hydrogen project powered by offshore wind in the UK's Teesside industrial cluster.

The new partnership builds on framework agreements signed during a Sept. 2021 visit to the UK by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan.

We remind, Borouge, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Austrian chemical producer Borealis, on Monday said it secured seven cornerstone investors, including India’s wealthy Adani family for its USD2 billion initial public offering (IPO).

As per MRC, Adnoc and Mubadala Mubadala announced a strategic transaction involving Borealis, one of Europe’s leading petrochemical companies. Under this agreement, Adnoc will acquire a 25% shareholding in Borealis from Mubadala. Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, Borealis will be owned 25% by Adnoc and 75% by OMV, an Austrian multi-national integrated oil, gas and petrochemical company listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange.
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Thai-based Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) with its facility Wellman France Recycling in Verdun, has been working on the PET trays recycling for 6 years and through an ongoing project with VALORPLAST and supported by CITEO, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project has the objective to develop and validate recycling for monolayer and multilayer PET trays. VALORPLAST has collected significant quantities of post-consumer PET trays and several industrial runs have been conducted by Wellman. The produced flakes are being tested by several actors to develop high quality applications. Those tests have led by IVL to develop a commercially feasible recycling solution for monolayer PET trays with the collaboration of Klockner Pentaplast. The new technology is processing monolayer PET trays used for food packaging (meat, produce and cheese) into a high-quality product, suitable for new tray production.

This new recycling innovation will see over 50 million post-consumer PET trays diverted away from landfill or incineration. " PET trays are essential to combat food waste. Their high barrier properties protect food for longer meaning fresh and safe food for all of us.” for Francois LAGRUE, Head of Operations – Europe, Indorama Ventures Recycling Group said “This new technology will mean that for the first time we have a circular recycling solution for PET tray packaging. This will lend significant support in realising the EU’s plastic collection and recycling targets.

"This is a true value circle effort. Tests were performed at all levels, including sorting, recycling and conversion. Ensuring the input met the right quality and purity levels is our top priority. Development of tray recycling has been a goal for some time. We are proud that – together with our partners – we have been able to develop a commercially and technically feasible process, that allows us to produce a dedicated rPET flake product for the food packaging market."

Testing has now moved into commercial production. 500 tonnes of PET trays are now being processed monthly and transformed into a high-quality tray flake, which can be used to produce new trays. The purity of the flakes is comparable with high-quality bottle flake. A further scale up is foreseen, and the company plans to process 10KT of tray flake in 2022.

Catherine Klein, General Director of VALORPLAST said, “We are delighted with the results of this ambitious project. It shows that the recycling of plastic packaging is really progressing. On the side of VALORPLAST, we have been involved for many years on PET trays recycling. This main project, hand in hand with Indorama Ventures’ Wellman site and started in 2018, leads today to an opportunity for industrial recycling for this type of packaging. Through the project, we are also working on solutions for multilayer PET trays. The next steps could be the game changer we look for."

Adam Barnett, President of the Food Packaging Division at Klockner Pentaplast said, “We welcome this investment in Europe’s circular economy. By delivering a circular system for trays weensure that valuable secondary raw material is not wasted. We will be using this flake as part of our kp Tray2Tray initiative to include recycled content in our food packaging trays for the fresh food sector across Europe. An exciting step change to creating and supporting true circularity.

As per ICIS-MRC Price Report, April PET chips supply to the country increased to 15,000 tonnes, compared to 13,500 tonnes a month earlier. Imports of material were at 31,500 tonnes in April 2021.The share of Chinese material was 99% (14,900 tonnes) in April versus 89% (12,000 tonnes) a month earlier. Supply of bottle grade PET increased by 10% in the four months 2021 compared to the same period last year - from 67,100 tonnes to 73,700 tonnes.

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Algeria's national oil company Sonatrach said on Thursday it has awarded China a USD520-MM contract to build a Methyl Tert Butyl Ether plant, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project will enter into production in 2025 with an output estimated at 200,000 tpy, the company added during the signing ceremony.

As per MRC, the Chief Executive Officer of Sonatrach, Toufik Hakkar, and the Chief Executive Officer of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, in the presence of the Minister of Energy and Mines Mohamed Arkab and the Ambassador of Italy to Algiers Giovanni Pugliese, have signed a new oil contract related to the onshore Berkine basin area, where Eni has been a leader since 1981. On the same occasion, Eni and Sonatrach also signed a MOU for cooperation on initiatives in the energy transition.

We remind, in September 2020, energy company Sonatrach announced it had controlled two oil leaks that occurred earlier in the OK1 pipeline due to bad weather. Sonatrach had said earlier in a statement on Facebook that the pipeline connects Hassi Messaoud to Skikda.
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The White House is considering waiving U.S. gasoline environmental rules aimed at reducing summertime smog, hoping the waiver will combat rising pump prices, according to three sources involved in the discussions, said Reuters.

The Biden administration is considering waiving U.S. gasoline environmental rules aimed at reducing summertime smog, hoping the waiver will combat rising pump prices, according to three sources involved in the discussions.

Refiners and blenders are required to avoid lower-cost components like butane in summer gasoline, but the White House is weighing suspending that rule to help lower fuel costs. The components help elevate gasoline's Reid vapor pressure, or RVP, which contributes to smog at higher levels, particularly in the hot summer months.

President Joe Biden's administration has already lifted the requirement for summer sales of E15, a lower-price, high ethanol gasoline. The waiver under consideration would apply to all grades of gasoline, the sources said. No final decision has been made, they said.

The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment. Outside groups, particularly governors, have been lobbying the White House to issue the waiver. Biden has made fighting inflation and high pump prices the top priority ahead of congressional elections in November. Republicans seeking to take control of Congress have bludgeoned Democrats with the issue and the White House has adopted an 'everything is on the table' approach to curb the price spike.

U.S. gasoline futures dropped in post-settlement trade by more than 4% to as low as USD3.6314 a gallon, then eased further after Reuters reported the move was under consideration. The price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped 50% in the last year, to more than USD4.59 on average nationally, according to the American Automobile Association.

As per MRC, The U.S. House passed a bill on Thursday that allows the U.S. president to issue an energy emergency declaration, making it unlawful for companies to excessively increase gasoline and home fuel prices. The bill must pass the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future, and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.

As per MRC, the price of Brent crude oil, the world benchmark, has increased in 2022, partly as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In addition, a strong U.S. dollar means that countries that use currencies other than the U.S. dollar pay more as crude oil prices increase.
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