BASF's Freeport site to install new ammonium sulfate crystallizer system

(process-worldwide) -- Officials at BASF's Freeport, Texas, site announced that the site will soon begin construction of a new, 160,000 ton per year ammonium sulfate crystallizer system at its caprolactam plant. This is a joint project with American Plant Food Corporation, Galena, Texas, a customer of BASF.

Once completed, the crystallizer will refine high-quality ammonium sulfate, a by-product of the caprolactam manufacturing process and a key component in plant fertilizer sold by American Plant Food. Construction of the crystallizer system is expected to take six months to complete and will cost about USD 8 million. The project will employ 20 construction personnel and will create 30 jobs off-site for local companies.

"This provides BASF and American Plant Food with a unique opportunity to gain significant benefits for both parties," said Chris Witte, Senior Vice President and General Manager of BASF's Freeport site. "It is an excellent example of finding innovative uses for by-products and reducing waste in our manufacturing processes - as well as helping our customers succeed."

MRC

(packagingnews) -- Arla Foods has appointed plastic packaging company Alpla to manufacture bottles on site at its new one billion-litre dairy in Aylesbury

Arla said that Alpa will also support its aim for the dairy to be the most environmentally advanced in the world. Alpla, which is targeting an industry first recycled HDPE material content of 50% in all bottles for Arla, will support the dairy company's aim of delivering a zero carbon facility with zero waste to landfill in Aylesbury.

Alpla has already designed a new range of lightweight HDPE bottles, which will deliver a weight saving in excess of 20% compared to Arla's current milk bottles.
MRC

(yarnsandfibers) -- "Kyrgyzstan exports 95 percent of cotton," the head of Light Industry Department under the Ministry of Energy and Industry, Ms. Fatima Sadamkulova, said at the panel discussion on development of textile and garment industry.

According her, the republic gathers annually 101.3 thousand tons of raw cotton and 11.1 thousand tons of wool in grease. ⌠Textile industry is not developed in the country. We cannot process own raw materials because of shortage of premises, specialists and finances. In 2011, only 22.5 thousand tons were processed out of gathered cotton. The main problem is absence of productive capacities, Fatima Sadamkulova explained.

She noted that the Ministry of Agriculture intends to increase area under cotton crops up to 40, 000 hectares. "This year entrepreneurs intend to produce 120 thousand tons of raw cotton and 16.6 thousand tons of wool. Therefore it is needed to establish industrial areas in Osh province to attract investors to pour money into fiber processing and restoration of silk industry," Fatima Sadamkulova said.
MRC

(sibur) -- Dmitry Konov, CEO of Russian petrochemical holding company SIBUR, and Wang Tianpu, President of ChinaPetrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), today signed a cooperation agreement during the Russian-Chinese Forum on commercial investment cooperation.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, and Li Keqiang, the VicePremier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
The agreement forms the basis for the creation of a joint venture (JV) for the production of butadiene nitrile rubber in Krasnoyarsk (Russia).

Sinopec plans to acquire 25% plus 1 share in the Krasnoyarsk rubber plant. The companies will consider expanding the plant's current production capacity from 42,000 tonnes to 56,000 tonnes per year.

The cooperation agreement describes the mechanism for the financing of the JV, as well as arrangements relating to share capital, management, raw material supply and marketing. A final decision on the establishment of the JV is expected by the end of 2012.

(bloomberg) -- Two oil traders were sentenced to four and five years in prison for illegally paying more than USD20 million to a LyondellBasell Industries NV (LYB) executive in return for oil-tanker charters to the company's Houston refinery.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake in Houston imposed a four-year sentence today on Bernard Langley, 54, of the U.K. Clyde Meltzer, 66, of Houston and Livingston, New Jersey, was given a five-year sentence.
They pleaded guilty last year to paying kickbacks into Swiss bank accounts controlled by LyondellBasell's Jonathan Barnes, a shipping manager, from 2007 to 2009. Langley and Meltzer were also sentenced to three years of supervised release.

Barnes agreed to pay above-market shipping rates to tanker companies controlled by the men to transport Venezuelan crude oil to Houston, in exchange for one-third of the profit the traders received, prosecutors said. Barnes, 56, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in January and ordered to pay restitution of USD82 million to the Rotterdam-based company.

MRC