Alpek develops Octal PET sheet with recycled monomers

Alpek is depolymerizing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and incorporating the monomers into a product line of Octal polyester sheet, a company director for the Mexican producer said.

Because Alpek is using monomers extracted from recycled PET, the resulting Octal sheet is virtually indistinguishable from virgin material. Recycled content gives Octal another way to stand out.

Unlike other PET sheet technologies, Octal sheet does not require a pellet step, said Alejandro Sanchez, senior director, sales and marketing, North America, PET sheet, Alpek Polyester. He made his comments on the sidelines of the Plastimagen plastic trade show in Mexico.

Instead, it has only a polymerization step and a sheet calendering step, according to Alpek. It is then ready to be shipped to thermoformers. The lack of a pellet step means that Octal PET sheet has a shorter heat history, Sanchez said. That makes it easier for the material to be recycled, since the shorter heating history prevents further degradation of properties.

Sanchez noted other benefits of the material. It has better clarity and better gauge control than polyester sheets made with different technologies. Gauge control allows Octal sheets to have more uniform thickness, he said. That, in turn, allows longer cycles and more efficient operations.

About 85% of Octal's market is in the food packaging business, he said. Some material is used in medical packaging. Alpek completed the acquisition of Octal in 2022.

mrchub.com

SK Chemicals and Estee Lauder Companies (ELCs) have inked a letter of intent concerning the supply of circular recycling solutions for its cosmetic container market, said Plasticsengineering.

Under the deal, SK Chemicals will supply Ecotria CR, Skypet CR, and Ecozen Claro to the company. ECLs will then develop packaging using the materials.

The companies plan to progressively increase the amount of recycled materials in their products and replace other non-recyclable materials with designs that incorporate recycled or recyclable materials.

We remind, SK Innovation will invest about Korean won (W) 1.7tr ($1.2bn) to build a plastic chemical recycling complex in Ulsan, South Korea by the second half of 2025. The complex, which is expected to have a recycling capacity of about 250,000 tonnes/year, will be built at a 215,000sqm site and will have three chemical recycling processes, namely, high-purity polypropylene (PP) extraction, depolymerisation and pyrolysis.

mrchub.com

PTC India has approved the bid of ONGC to purchase its subsidiary PTC Energy Ltd for Rup 925 crore, said Economictimes.

The company reported a 5.62% year-on-year increase on its consolidated net profit at Rup 135.10 crore in the quarter ended on 30 Jun 2023.

Total income was Rup 4863.46 crore, an increase from Rup 4310.74 crore a year ago. PTC Energy has commissioned wind projects with a capacity of 288.8 MW spread across Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. (1 crore=10 M, 1 lakh=100,000).

We remind, LyondellBasell, the world’s largest licensor of polyolefin technologies, announced that Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) has selected LyondellBasell’s Hostalen “Advanced Cascade Process” (Hostalen ACP) technology for a new 200 kiloton per year (KTA) high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant.

mrchub.com

BP's underlying replacement cost profit for 3Q 2023 was $3.3 bn, compared with $2.6 bn for the previous quarter, said the company.

BP shares were 4.3% lower by 1325 GMT after the results fell well short of expectations for a $4 billion net income, the company's second straight substantial quarterly miss.

Interim CEO Murray Auchincloss said that strong oil trading earnings and refining margins in the third quarter were offset by weak natural gas trading where there had been a "lack of volatility" due to high inventory levels in Europe and the United States ahead of winter.

The British company maintained its dividend at 7.27 cents per share and extended its $1.5 billion share buyback programme over the next three months, leaving its payout policy unchanged.

BP wrote down $540 million in the quarter on its wind power projects offshore New York after officials rejected a request for better terms to reflect what BP referred to as "inflationary pressures and permitting delays".

BP paid Equinor $1.1 billion in 2020 for a 50% stake in the venture to develop the Empire and Beacon offshore wind projects which have a combined capacity of 3.3 gigawatts, capable of powering 2 million homes.

mrchub.com

Cepsa has begun to search for and develop projects for the construction and operation of biomethane production plants from agricultural and livestock waste to decarbonize its industrial activity, replacing the use of natural gas with this renewable gas, said the company.

By 2030, the company aims to manage a project portfolio of 4 TWh per year, an ambitious target, equivalent to the energy needed for 650,000 homes, which will enable it to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from its power plants and chemical plants, as well as providing a complementary vector to produce green hydrogen and employment in sustainable mobility.

The use of this renewable gas, instead of fossil fuels, will result in the reuse of 10 million tons of waste per year and will prevent the emission of 728,000 tons of CO2 per year, equivalent to planting 8.7 million trees.

The plants will use agricultural and livestock waste to produce biomethane aimed at replacing natural gas in Cepsa's industrial activity, it said. This will allow the reuse of 10 million tons of waste and avoid the emission of 728,000 tons of CO2 every year, it said.

The first five plants are expected to start operations between 2025 and 2026. Cepsa wants to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

We remind, Cepsa plans to nearly double its investments over the next three years to a total of 3.6 B euros (USD3.82 B), with more than half of that amount going to sustainable energy and mobility. It also posted a full-year net profit at current cost of supplies (CCS) of 790 MM euros for 2022, up sharply from the 310 MM euros reported in 2021. The planned investment increase of 93% for 2023-25 is from the previous three years, Cepsa said.

mrchub.com