Recycleye places four new units in UK facility

Bryson Recycling, a United Kingdom-based social enterprise that operates a material recovery facility (MRF), has ordered four additional robotic sorters made by London-based Recycleye Robotics. The Bryson MRF in Mallusk, Northern Ireland, installed an initial Recycleye robot in 2021, said Recyclingtoday.

“This four-fold investment increase marks the first announced robot re-purchase in the U.K. and Ireland,” according to Recycleye. The equipment firm says Bryson decided to purchase additional robots “to build on the successful operation of an existing artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Recycleye Robotics solution on its fiber line.”

The additional units, says Recycleye, are expected to improve material quality, maximize recycling, reduce residual waste and reduce costs. “We have decided to purchase four further robots from Recycleye following the great results from the first one – almost 8,500 run hours, with around 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds) of materials picked per week, and with an availability greater than 98 percent,” says Jaroslaw Stanislawek, Bryson’s engineering manager. “We feel confident this new installation will further improve the consistency in our material quality.”

“Investments such as this enable us to stay on top of the benefits of new technology,” remarks Katy Fulton, a director at Bryson Recycling. “We are a significant local employer, and that means running a profitable business that is open to change and innovation.”

Recycleye CEO Victor Dewulf comments, “We are delighted that Bryson Recycling has chosen to continue working with us to build on their initial investment in our AI-powered [recycling] robots. This is a strong statement of confidence in the value Recycleye robots bring to [materials] sorting and to the economics of materials recovery, and we are proud to be able to support Bryson.”

The four new robots will be retrofitted in the main sorting cabin at the company’s MRF, which is on the outskirts of Belfast and employs more than 100 people. Two of the four robots will be installed over a fiber line with the objective of picking non-paper items such as plastics, cans and cardboard to reduce contamination.

The remaining two robots will operate on a residual line, where they will target the removal of recyclable materials with the aim of diverting higher volumes into recycling end markets rather than to a waste-to-energy outlet.

The robots will be programmed to perform the physical tasks of identifying, picking and placing materials and will “operate alongside, but separate, to human operatives, who continue to work in the company’s facilities,” states Recycleye.

Recycleye refers to an “AI computer vision system” as being able to detect “all individual items” in the materials stream. Bryson Recycling collects and processes materials from more than 50 percent of homes in Northern Ireland and employs more than 350 people at 12 sites in Northern Ireland, Ireland and Wales.

We remind, Republic Services, the second biggest waste disposal company in the U.S. after Waste Management Corp., said that it teamed up with polymer recycler and distributor Ravago to create Blue Polymers, LLC, a company “that will develop a network of facilities designed to produce recycled products” to supply manufacturers that buy resin.

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Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC.N) said on Friday night a fire at its 596,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Garyville, Louisiana refinery was nearly extinguished, but fire suppression work was continuing to prevent flareups, said Reuters.

The company will begin evaluating restarting units closest to the fire that were shut earlier in the day "out of an abundance of caution," said Marathon spokesperson Jamal Kheiry. Two giant naphtha storage tanks on the south side of the refinery near the Mississippi River erupted in flames on Friday morning following a chemical leak, sending a huge plume of black smoke over the largely rural area 38 miles (67 km) west of New Orleans on Friday morning.

Late on Friday afternoon, St. John the Baptist Parish President Jaclyn Hotard lifted a mandatory evacuation for residents living within two miles of the refinery, according to a spokesperson for the parish. The blaze destroyed both storage tanks, melting the walls of one to the ground and almost as much for the other, according to video broadcast from local media outlets.

One firefighter was examined for heat stress. No other injuries were reported, Kheiry said. Three large semi trucks hauled fire suppression foam and firefighting equipment on Friday from Marathon's Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas to Garyville, said people familiar with operations at Galveston Bay.

Garyville, like much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, is under an excessive heat warning, with the temperature reaching 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius) on Friday afternoon. Marathon's Garyville refinery is the third-largest in the United States by capacity.

Kheiry said Marathon would investigate the fire's cause. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an organization critical of the oil and gas industry's safety and environmental record, faulted lax oversight by the state of Louisiana for the fire.

"The petrochemical industry is here in Louisiana for one reason only: to make as much money as possible," said Anne Rolfes, executive director of the organization. "As long as the state of Louisiana continues to look away from fires and mushroom clouds, these accidents will continue." Greg Langley, press secretary for the Louisiana Department of Environment Quality, declined to comment on the Bucket Brigade statement.

We remind, Marathon Petroleum’s former refinery in Martinez, California, has been repurposed to produce renewable diesel through the company’s joint venture with Neste. The Martinez Renewable Fuels Facility is currently operating with a capacity of 260 MMgal/yr. Additional production capacity is expected to be online by the end of 2023, bringing the total capacity to approximately 730 MMgal/yr of renewable fuels.

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The UN Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, was established to help businesses align their strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, said the company.

The Ten Principles guide companies towards responsible and sustainable practices, ensuring that their operations have a positive impact on both society and the environment.

Huhtamaki has been a participant in the UN Global Compact Initiative since 2020 and is guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help us embed sustainability in our operations. We use the SDG universal framework to help us focus on sustainability across all three ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) pillars and accelerate our transformation as part of our 2030 Strategy. Though our ambition and progress have been externally validated, we know our journey is far from over and we must continue to work hard to deliver on our 2030 sustainability ambitions and deliver a positive impact.

Charles Heaulme, our President and CEO talks about how we see the Ten Principles and what actions we are taking to address these important themes: “We are proud to continue our support for the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact. We commit to safeguarding the Ten Principles for human rights, labor standards, environment, and anti-corruption throughout our operations.

We remind, Huhtamaki inaugurated a 12,500m2 expansion of its paper-based packaging manufacturing site in Nules, Spain. The expansion involved a EUR20m (USD20.8m) investment, which included a grant of EUR2.2m (USD2.3m) from the Conselleria de Hacienda y Modelo Economico. Huhtamaki said the expansion will begin production this January and double the site’s capacity.

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Univar Solutions Mexico, a global solutions provider to users of specialty ingredients and chemicals, announced an exclusive distribution agreement with dsm-firmenich, global innovators in nutrition, health, and beauty, that create solutions which positively contribute to the daily care routine and health of people's face, skin, and hair worldwide, Specialchem.

The addition of dsm-firmenich's product portfolio in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, expands Univar Solutions' ability to offer personal care ingredients and solutions, which are highly innovative and locally applicable in the regions.

"We are very pleased to be working with dsm-firmenich, adding their extensive and innovative products to our portfolio, and expanding access for customers who are seeking personal care solutions to grow their business," said James Peterson, global vice president for beauty and personal care for Univar Solutions.”

“Both Univar Solutions and dsm-firmenich are focused on ingredients, formulations, and solutions that nourish, protect, and improve the lives of people and the changing needs of our planet. dsm-firmenich's products enhance and diversify our portfolio further and our teams look forward to presenting them to our esteemed customers across a range of personal care markets."

With today's healthy beauty trends extending beyond skin care and encompassing hair care, sun care (including sun protection through vitamins used in sunscreens), and cosmetics, both companies are well positioned to help customers turn trends into product solutions. Univar Solutions' specialized beauty and personal care expertise serves sun care, skin care, color cosmetics, and hair care customers with a suite of customized products and services.

Supported by advanced innovation at its network of Solution Centers, a global distribution footprint, and supply chain expertise, the Company delivers a comprehensive customer experience, from product development through ongoing brand support. dsm-firmenich is one of the global leaders in UV filters and vitamins, with over 40 years' experience on skin bioactives, with an innovative portfolio that includes UV filters, vitamins, actives, extracts, peptides, and performance ingredients.

We remind, Royal DSM, a global purpose-led science-based company, announces the completion of the sale of its Engineering Materials business to Advent International and LANXESS for an Enterprise Value of EUR3.85 billion.

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Chinese refining giant Sinopec Corp plans to maintain steady refinery output during the second half of 2023 as domestic fuel demand recovers, after reporting a 20% decline in interim profit because of lower crude oil prices, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Sinopec, the world's largest refiner by capacity, plans 127 million metric tons of crude throughput, about 5.04 million barrels per day, between July and December, versus 126.54 million tons during the first six months, the company said in a stock filing on Sunday.

"The Chinese economy is seen extending its recovery. Domestic refined fuel demand is looking up and natural gas demand will maintain growth and that of chemical products will rebound gradually," Sinopec said. That will bring its annual throughput to 253.5 million tons for 2023, marking growth of 4.7% versus 2022, according to Reuters calculations based on company data.

Sinopec on Sunday reported a 20.1% fall in interim net profit for the first half of the year compared with the same period of 2022, to 35.11 billion yuan ($4.82 billion), on lower crude prices despite higher refinery output and growth in fuel sales.

Its revenue slipped 1.1% to 1.59 trillion yuan for the six months, although it recorded an 18.5% increase in total domestic and overseas refined fuel sales of 116.6 million tons. China's fuel demand continued to recover in the second quarter after a 6.7% year-on-year increase in the first three months, with gasoline and aviation fuel leading the way as people travelled more.

Sinopec said its first-half domestic fuel sales rose 17.9% from a year earlier to 92.47 million tons. Demand for diesel fuel, however, remained under pressure from an ailing property sector and as weakening merchandise exports curbed trucking.

Chinese refiners overall benefited from cheap crude oil supplies from Iran, Venezuela and Russia, as Western sanctions forced those producers to sell oil at deep discounts to keep revenue flowing. Although state majors have shied away from Iranian and Venezuelan oil, Sinopec has been taking in Russian supplies, traders have said.

Sinopec produced 139.68 million barrels of crude oil during the six months, up 0.02% year on year. Its natural gas output gained 7.6% to 660.88 billion cubic feet (18.714 billion cubic meters). The company's refining margin was 354 yuan ($48.57) per ton in the first half of this year, down 33.6% from a year earlier, it said.

Sinopec plans capital spending of 104 billion yuan during the second half of the year, 38.7% above spending during the first half, on oil and gas fields like Tahe in Xinjiang and Weirong in Sichuan, as well as refinery expansion at Zhenhai. Sinopec has been exploring more geologically challenging reserves, like the Bazhong tight gas field and more shale gas acreage in Sichuan.

We remind, Sinopec reported a 10.5% year-on-year increase in first-half 2022 net profit on the back of strong crude, even as its chemical earnings shrunk 94% as demand collapsed amid COVID-19 curbs. Strong crude and COVID-19 outbreaks dampened domestic demand for oil products in April-June 2022, with chemical operations have had to grapple with high cost, high inventory, low utilisation rates and poor margin. Ethylene consumption in the first half barely grew, logging a 0.1% year-on-year increase, while output grew 5.9% to 6.85m tonnes. Sinopec is targeting to produce 7.2m tonnes of ethylene in the second half, which will bring the full-year production to 14.05m tonnes, up 4.9% from 2021.

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