Olin achieves ISCC PLUS certification

Olin Corporation, a leading global epoxy solutions provider, has achieved International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certification for its Stade (Germany) facility, said the company.

The ISCC PLUS certification is a globally recognized standard that demonstrates a company's adherence to strict sustainability criteria throughout its supply chain. This certified mass-balance approach to manufacturing enables our Stade Epoxy site to offer products with bio and renewable feedstock content through our existing manufacturing processes.

Olin is committed to finding new ways to lower energy consumption, increase operating efficiency, recycle materials, and conserve natural resources.

We remind, Olin Corp said it has idled or dialled back at least 500,0000 tonnes/year of chlorine and 550,000 dmt (dry metric tonnes)/year caustic soda production capacity to help support commodity values amid a market price downtrend. The moves include idling the St Gabriel, Louisiana, chlor-alkali plant rated at 250,000 dmt/year in caustic soda and 223,000 tonnes/year of chlorine. The company, the largest chlor-alkali producer in the US and in the world, will also throttle back operating rates at its giant complex in Freeport, Texas, by at “least an equivalent amount”, Patrick Schumacher, president of Olin’s chlor-alkali & vinyls division.

mrchub.com

Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority will launch a digital bunkering initiative on Nov. 1, making the city-state the first port in the world to use electronic bunker fuel delivery notes, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The digital notes will replace physical documents containing information on fuel oil deliveries. Under the initiative, fuel suppliers, ship owners, operators and crew will be encouraged to use mobile and cloud-based applications approved by the MPA to complete and issue bunkering documents.

Over 100 trials involving more than 20 companies have been conducted in Singapore since January this year. One of these companies is container shipping firm Ocean Network Express (ONE), which completed a digital bunkering trial with oil major Shell in September.

The bunkering documents for pre-delivery and post-delivery were transmitted to all parties before the ships departed, ONE said in a statement on Monday. Feedback will be gathered from users to improve the MPA-approved applications, with plans to make digital bunkering notes mandatory by end-2024, the MPA said.

The applications will also automatically relay bunkering-related information required by the MPA, reducing compliance costs and improving productivity. The digital approach is expected to streamline workflows and improve crew safety by eliminating the physical transfer of bunker documents between vessels.

New specifications will be laid out for digital bunkering supply chain documentation, the MPA said, and the code of practice for bunker mass flow metering will be revised to support electronic bunkering notes. MPA is also working with government agencies Enterprise Singapore and Workforce Singapore to support maritime companies in the early adoption of digital bunkering and provide any training needed, it said.

We remind, Evergreen targets to achieve net-zero by 2050 in line with the International Maritime Organization's GHG strategy. To do so, Evergreen has teamed up with the world's largest fund manager within greenfield renewable energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for a collaboration on hydrogen-based marine fuels.

mrchub.com

A lack of biofuels demand in Asia-Pacific is making it hard for companies to justify pumping billions of dollars into projects in the region, an ExxonMobil executive said on Monday, despite growing decarbonization efforts worldwide, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"The reality in Asia Pacific here, what we're finding is that there isn't enough demand for biofuels," Irtiza Sayyed, president of ExxonMobil's low carbon solutions Asia-Pacific, said at a conference during Singapore International Energy Week.

"From an industry perspective, we have identified various supply sources, but they're not meaningful and material enough to justify billions of dollars worth of investments," Sayyed added. Biofuels, touted as one of the low-carbon solutions to fuel airplanes and ships, are costly to produce with limited feedstock options.

In Singapore, Shell earlier this year paused a biofuels project. However, Finnish producer Neste has completed an expansion at its plant in the city state, boosting its sustainable aviation fuel capacity by up to 1 million metric tons per year.

Sayyed said more communication is needed between the aviation and shipping sectors to support the growth of supply from the biofuel sector.

The use of biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel continues to increase globally. But usage remains concentrated in a small number of markets, typically important agricultural ones including the United States, Brazil, India and Thailand, which can lead to a surplus of biofuel feedstocks, BMI Research analysts said in a client report.

We remind, Evergreen targets to achieve net-zero by 2050 in line with the International Maritime Organization's GHG strategy. To do so, Evergreen has teamed up with the world's largest fund manager within greenfield renewable energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for a collaboration on hydrogen-based marine fuels.

mrchub.com

Shandong Lianmeng Chemical Company awards licensing and equipment supply contracts for a grassroots urea melt and prilling plant in China to Stamicarbon, the nitrogen technology licensor of MAIRE Group, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The plant located in Shouguang city of Shandong province in China will use Stamicarbon’s Ultra-Low Energy design with a highly efficient pool reactor concept and have a capacity of 2334 MTPD.

Stamicarbon will provide the license, proprietary equipment, including high-pressure equipment made of super duplex stainless steel and associated services. This grassroots project will be the eighth urea plant worldwide to utilize Stamicarbon’s proprietary Ultra-Low Energy design.

The Ultra-Low Energy Design allows heat supplied as high-pressure steam to be used three times instead of two, compared to the conventional CO2 stripping processes. This results in a 35% reduction in steam consumption and a 16% decrease in cooling water use. The efficiency of this design is proven with two operational plants, making its energy savings unparalleled in the market.

"We are thrilled to start this project in collaboration with Stamicarbon, a global leader in urea technology. We are looking forward to seeing the cutting-edge technology in action and are confident in the advantages it will bring," said Mr. Wang Xinjian, the General manager of Shandong Lianmeng Group.

We remind, Belarus expects to receive $640 MM from Russia in 2024 to compensate for losses sustained by its oil refineries, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Monday, citing the Belarusian Finance Ministry. Belarus used to import discounted oil from Moscow for years and resold some of it, as well as oil products refined from the Russian crude, on to Europe. Russia stopped the practice in 2019 amid changes to its tax policy, resulting in costs of $330 million to Belarus that year, according to Minsk's estimates.

mrchub.com

DHL Express and World Energy, a leading SAF producer and low-carbon solutions provider, have signed a long-term strategic agreement to accelerate the decarbonization of aviation logistics through the purchase of approx, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

668 million liters of Sustainable Aviation Fuel via sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc). The seven-year contract, to run through 2030, is the one of the longest and largest SAFc agreements in the aviation industry to date.

The agreement is expected to reduce approx. 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the aviation fuel lifecycle – this is equivalent to handling the approximately 77,000 annual aircraft movements of DHL Express in the Americas carbon neutrally for a full year. The milestone agreement is further testament to DHL Group’s ambitious Sustainability Roadmap, which includes the goal to reduce the Group's annual greenhouse gas emissions to below 29 million tons CO2e in 2030 across scopes 1, 2 and 3.

"DHL Express is firmly dedicated to pioneering a sustainable future in aviation logistics," said John Pearson, CEO DHL Express. "By partnering with World Energy and confirming this milestone agreement, we are taking another concrete leap towards minimizing our carbon footprint and contributing to a more sustainable future. We want to inspire more suppliers to accelerate industry-wide production and adoption of SAF.”

“We are honored to team up with DHL on this quest to decarbonize aviation,” said Gene Gebolys, World Energy CEO. “Decarbonizing the hard-to-abate sectors requires commitment across the value chain, and partnerships like the one we are launching today are key to enabling companies like DHL to meet their ambitions climate goals.”

With SAFc, the fuel’s environmental attributes are separated from the fuel itself using a “Book & Claim” chain of custody model. The Book & Claim approach enhances transparency and accountability of sustainable fuels by ensuring that the emission reductions associated with each credit are accurately transferred and verified by a third party. It allows DHL Express to purchase SAFc, utilize the associated emission reductions, and extend the environmental attributes to its customers through the GoGreen Plus service. SAFc delivered through Book & Claim also helps to minimize both logistical costs and emissions as the fuel does not need to be shipped around the world. This helps make SAFc the most efficient way to decarbonize aviation. All of World Energy SAFc for DHL will meet rigorous sustainability certification standards from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). In addition, all volumes will be traced through an independent registry to ensure traceability of claims related to SAFc. The fuel itself will be supplied to Los Angeles area airports, close to World Energy’s production facility in Paramount, CA.

We remind, Evergreen targets to achieve net-zero by 2050 in line with the International Maritime Organization's GHG strategy. To do so, Evergreen has teamed up with the world's largest fund manager within greenfield renewable energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for a collaboration on hydrogen-based marine fuels.

mrchub.com