Neste partners with Coleman Oil Company to make renewable diesel more widely available

Neste has partnered with Coleman Oil Company, a leading provider of fuels, biofuels, lubricants, and related products, to enable cities and businesses to have easier access to Neste MY Renewable Diesel in the state of Washington in the U.S., said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This partnership expands the availability of Neste MY Renewable Diesel to key locations in Coleman Oil’s network of commercial fueling stations and other distribution channels, such as bulk fuel delivery and retail stations across Washington and offers this lower-emission fuel to the state’s construction, agriculture, heavy duty trucking industries, and municipalities. The partnership is expected to help the state reduce reliance on fossil diesel and make the transportation sector more sustainable.

“Washington State has demonstrated its commitment to sustainability by becoming the latest state to implement a Clean Fuel Standard. Today, Neste is supporting the state’s goal of reducing emissions from the transportation sector by providing renewable diesel to the companies and cities in Washington,” says Carrie Song, Vice President, Renewable Road Transportation, Americas at Neste. “We are excited to partner with Coleman Oil; their massive distribution network is crucial for us in making renewable diesel available across the state.”

“We are extremely excited to partner with Neste. Neste MY Renewable Diesel is a best-in-class product that will be at the center of our renewables strategy,” says Ian Coleman, President of Coleman Oil Company.

Made from sustainably sourced, 100% renewable raw materials, Neste MY Renewable Diesel can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 75%* over the fuel’s life cycle compared with fossil diesel. In addition to reducing GHG emissions, renewable diesel delivers strong performance. Because it does not contain sulfur, oxygen or aromatic compounds, it combusts cleaner. Additionally, Neste MY Renewable Diesel performs well in extreme cold conditions (down to -4°F/-20°C) and can be stored over long periods of time without deterioration, making it an ideal choice for businesses that operate in Washington, where the average daytime temperatures can range from the upper 30s to around 0°F (3° to -17°C) in winter.

We remind, in November 2023, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in Finland granted Neste an energy investment aid of EUR 1.96 million for heat recovery from the green hydrogen production being planned for the Porvoo refinery. The goal of the project, which is in the basic engineering phase, is to build a 120MW electrolyzer that produces green hydrogen for the refinery’s processes. In addition to green hydrogen, the production also generates heat that could be recovered. The investment decision readiness regarding the green hydrogen project is expected to be reached during 2024.

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AkzoNobel’s Coil and Extrusion Coatings business has signed a strategic agreement with the hi-tech specialists to develop a pioneering process that uses electron beams to cure coatings on metal substrates, said the company.

E-beam technology is a fast-growing scientific field and could offer significant advantages over conventional thermal curing methods, such as lower energy consumption, increased productivity with higher quality and reduced environmental impact. The process itself cures coatings by using a directed stream of electrons to deliver the energy required to form the final film.

“We’re extremely excited about the possibilities of E-beam technology and the benefits this partnership could bring,” says Jim Kavanagh, Director of AkzoNobel’s Industrial Coatings business. “By working together with Wuxi El Pont, we’ll be able to leverage their expertise and experience of electron accelerators and beam devices and innovate sustainable solutions together.”

Adds Dr. Yuwei Zhang, Chairman of Wuxi El Pont Radiation Technology Co., Ltd: “We’re committed to developing China's civil nuclear technology and expanding the application of electron beam technology. We have every confidence that the combination of our process development capabilities for low-energy electron beam equipment with AkzoNobel’s research and development expertise will prove to be a success. Our close cooperation will accelerate the low carbon transformation of the paints and coatings industry, improve product quality and safety, and provide strong support for the industry to make strides towards carbon neutrality as soon as possible.”

Wuxi El Pont is a leading player in the high energy radiation accelerator market. The company has a strong presence in China and offers advanced solutions for radiation sterilization and material processing applications. The E-beam technology it uses is electrically generated and?does not rely on radioisotopes, which means no radioactive waste or toxic compounds are involved.

We remind, Revolutionary software co-developed by AkzoNobel’s Powder Coatings business and coatingAI is using artificial intelligence to help customers improve the application process and reduce their carbon footprint. The industry-first technology, called Flightpath, optimizes equipment settings to reduce defects and overspray and improve powder consumption – helping to reduce costs, avoid rework and save time and energy.

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BASF announced last week that three large divisions will be separated from the company's original structure and transformed into legally independent units, said the company.

In addition to the agricultural sector, the battery materials business and coating production business will also be affected. These divisions are among the group's sales drivers: the agriculture division has sales of 10 billion euros in 2022, while the coatings division has sales of 4.2 billion euros. The coatings division will gain greater freedom within the new GmbH.

However, BASF emphasized that there are currently no plans to sell these units. The company will separate these three departments, which will be managed and controlled according to different standards in the future. However, employee representatives expressed concerns about the spin-off.

On the stock market, however, the news was welcomed, with BASF shares rising nearly 1.5% on last Thursday.

The electric vehicle battery materials business is one of BASF's main businesses in the future. BASF is one of the global leaders in coatings for the automotive and aerospace industries and a top four global player in the agricultural sector.

To date, BASF has tightly integrated these three business units in what is known as co-production. In the joint production system, various chemical plants are closely connected and interdependent. In this way, petrochemicals are increasingly processed into specialty products.

For most of BASF's chemical businesses, this is a decisive competitive advantage. However, the market has changed for the three divisions that have now been spun off. On the agricultural business side, seeds and services such as digital management of agricultural operations are becoming increasingly important.

BASF plans to invest more than 4 billion euros in the electric vehicle battery materials business in the next few years to establish a leading position in the global market. BASF is currently building a large-scale cathode materials factory in Schwarzheide, Brandenburg. The company plans to massively expand its battery business, especially in China. BASF has not yet provided any data. But by 2030, the segment's sales are expected to exceed 7 billion euros.

BASF Chief Financial Officer Dirk Elvermann said at an investor event on last Thursday that demand for battery materials and coatings is increasingly shifting to Asia as a reason why the company urgently needs to increase the independence of these business units.

Additionally, partnerships are more important in these businesses, and as an independent entity, it will be easier for these businesses to collaborate legally. The aim, Elvermann said, is to differentiate each division from the competition. But he did not specify what those partnerships might look like.

The German chemical, energy, mining and chemicals union IG BCE said the announcement was "bad news" for affected employees and would create uncertainty. However, the Management Board has assured the Works Council that it is simply a matter of improving the efficiency of the three business units. There are no plans for layoffs.

There is widespread concern among union members that the ongoing economic downturn could lead BASF to take further cost-cutting measures. They are pushing to extend the site agreement for the Ludwigshafen plant until 2030.

BASF announced a cost-cutting plan in the spring to eliminate 2,600 jobs worldwide. The program is expected to save around 300 million euros this year.

We remind, BASF, a stalwart in the world of cosmetic ingredients, has recently broadened its portfolio, introducing an enzyme ingredient and an emulsifier designed to enhance sustainable formulating practices.

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Revolutionary software co-developed by AkzoNobel’s Powder Coatings business and coatingAI is using artificial intelligence to help customers improve the application process and reduce their carbon footprint, said the company.

The industry-first technology, called Flightpath, optimizes equipment settings to reduce defects and overspray and improve powder consumption – helping to reduce costs, avoid rework and save time and energy.

The AI-based software has been in development for two years and an exclusivity agreement has just been signed by both parties – who joined forces after first crossing paths during AkzoNobel’s Paint the Future start-up challenge in 2021.

Earlier this year, the company’s Powder Coatings business was the first in the industry to launch an openly accessible online energy savings calculator for all users of powder coatings. It helps customers better understand how even making small changes in the coatings process can have a big impact in terms of becoming more energy efficient.

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China’s Jiangsu Sopo Chemical is planning to construct an integrated vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) project at Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province, the company announced.

The VAM plant, with a capacity of 330,000 tonnes/year, will be built as a first phase facility.

A 300,000 tonne/year EVA plant will be implemented in the second phase.

Investments are estimated at yuan (CNY) 3.2bn for VAM and CNY3.9bn for EVA.

The company expect to complete construction of the VAM plant within three years and the EVA plant within five years after approval.

From the perspective of asset integration, Polyester Technology owns approximately 357 acres of land in the New Materials Industrial Park of Zhenjiang New District, and the land is close to SOPO Chemical New Materials.

The company plans to carry out overall management of relevant land parcels to meet the land needs for the construction of vinyl acetate and EVA integrated projects.

It is worth noting that Polyester Technology originally planned to promote the construction of a 200,000 tons/year dimethyl carbonate project on the aforementioned land, with a project investment of approximately 2.181 billion yuan. With the completion of this absorption and merger, relevant projects will be constructed on other sites.

According to the data, SOPO Chemical New Materials is mainly engaged in the production and sales of basic chemical raw materials such as chlor-alkali and sulfuric acid. It has 600,000 tons/year sulfuric acid and downstream series product equipment, 200,000 tons/year ion membrane unit, 170,000 tons/year high-purity hydrochloric acid unit, 13,000 tons/year polyol unit, 30,000 tons/year dichlorobenzene unit, 55,000 tons/year air separation unit, and 50,000 tons/year chloroacetic acid unit. Current product application fields include light industry, textile, chemical industry, agriculture , building materials, electricity, electronics, food processing, etc.

We remind, Cepsa, which is owned by Mubadala and Carlyle, and C2X, an independent company majority owned by A.P. Moller Holding with A.P. Moller – Maersk as minority owner, announce a joint ambition to develop a green methanol plant in the port of Huelva, southern Spain, said the company. Green methanol is made by using green hydrogen and non-fossil sources of carbon captured from the atmosphere or from agricultural and forestry waste and can replace fossil methanol, reducing carbon emissions in hard-to-abate industries such as long-distance shipping and other industries such as chemicals and plastics.

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