Honeywell UOP launches new membrane element to improve contaminant removal from natural gas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced the launch of a new membrane element that more efficiently removes contaminants from natural gas and reduces the amount of valuable methane and natural gas liquids (NGLs) lost during the contaminant removal process, said Prnewswire.

Honeywell's UOP Separex Select membrane element is the next-generation technology to remove contaminants such as acid gas and water from natural gas. Methane, or dry natural gas, is in high demand for heating and power generation, while NGLs are valuable feedstock for the production of petrochemicals such as plastics.

Separex Select membrane elements are designed as a replacement option for the elements currently housed within Honeywell's UOP Separex systems. These elements upgrade natural gas streams by removing carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and water vapor in a single process to meet the quality standards specified by pipeline transmission companies and end-users of the natural gas.

Honeywell's UOP developed Separex Select as a more selective element in gas separation. It offers an increase in membrane selectivity compared with existing cellulose acetate (CA) membrane elements, driving significantly higher recovery of methane and NGLs, while simultaneously reducing hydrocarbon emissions. In multi-stage Separex systems, Separex Select can also help producers lower their operating costs due to reduced inter-stage compression requirements.

As MRC wrote earlier, Honeywell's UOP granted the third technology license for its breakthrough methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology to China's Shandong Yangmei Hengtong Chemicals. The Chinese company will use Honeywell UOP's advanced MTO process to convert methanol from gasified coal into ethylene and propylene.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Egypt exported more than 11 thousand tons of homo PP to Turkey in the first month of 2013, which was a record high on a monthly basis for the country. Having been the fourth largest import PP supplier of Turkey throughout 2012, Egypt moved up to second place in the list of top PP suppliers in January, overtaking Greece and India, although it still lags well behind Saudi Arabia, said Chemorbis.

Back in 2010, Egypt had a minor market share of almost 1% in Turkey’s overall imports. Egyptian homo PP imports in 2011 posted a sharp increase and moved up by almost 7 times when compared to 2010. This was right in line with the stabilizing operations at the PP plant of EPPC as of 2011, after their start-up in 2010. Egypt’s market share in Turkey’s PP imports was little more than 6% in 2011.

In 2012, Egypt came after Saudi Arabia, India and Greece with a total of more than 70,000 tons of imports in Turkey, showing an increase of a little more than 7% on a year over year comparison. Although more import PP cargoes found their way to Turkey last year, Egypt’s market share did not grow much when compared to Turkey’s overall imports last year.

On a monthly basis in 2012, the largest imports were made in March with more than 9,700 tons, which was followed by December with more than 9,600 tons. In January 2013, a much larger tonnage was reported with more than 11,000 tons, which was marked as a record high on a monthly basis for this origin. When compared to the same month of last year, it displays an increase of 13%.

Egypt also saw significant gains in January 2013 relative to some of Turkey’s major PP suppliers, namely Greece and India. Its market share in January was almost double that of Greece, which was the third largest PP supplier in 2012 and it was four times bigger than India, which was in second place last year. However, PP imports from Egypt were far from catching Turkey’s number one supplier, Saudi Arabia, which contributed almost five times the amount contributed by Egypt during January.

Egyptian Propylene & Polypropylene Co (EPPC) has a nameplate PP capacity of 400,000 tons/year. Since 2011, the proximity of the Egyptian source as well as its exemption from customs duties owing to the free trade agreement in place between the two countries has been contributing to the competitiveness of this origin in the Turkish market.

As MRC wrote earlier, Egyptian Propylene and Polypropylene Company (EPPC) is exploring various means to raise upto USD450 mln to invest in expanding capacity of its propylene and polypropylene complex at Port Said. Capacity is planned to be expanded by 25% from 400,000 tpa to 510,000 tpa within two years.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corp. and Indonesia's Pertamina have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), advancing an earlier agreement to develop fuel ethanol projects in Indonesia, said Apic-online.

The two companies will now begin the detailed project planning phase for the joint development of synthetic fuel ethanol projects based on Celanese's TCX ethanol process technology.

Celanese and Pertamina have completed the objectives of the previously announced joint statement of cooperation, which included identifying potential production locations, confirming coal supply options and developing a distribution strategy for ethanol.

The MOU outlines the parties' intentions to establish a joint venture under which Celanese will hold a majority interest and would license its technology to the venture under a separate technology licensing agreement.

Celanese noted that detailed financial terms of the partnership and licensing agreement have not been finalized, but said the capital investment and financial returns for the venture are expected to be consistent with those previously announced for its fuel ethanol projects.

Celanese and Pertamina will now proceed to select the first production site, initial project permitting and negotiate coal supply and other industrial partner agreements. This phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2013, with ethanol production anticipated approximately 30 months after the final investment decision by each company and receipt of all necessary approvals.

As MRC wrote earlier, PT Pertamina plans to allocate USD3.1 billion for upstream investments in 2013, equal to 46% of its total investments.

Incorporated in late 2011 through a merger of PTT Chemical PCL and PTT Aromatics and Refining PCL, PTT Global Chemical has petrochemical capacity of 8.2 million tpy of olefins and aromatics and refining capacity of 280,000 bpd.
The Polymer product business produce a wide range of plastic products for use in various industries. Among the main products are HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PS.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amcor said it has developed the industry's lightest 64-oz hot-fill polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle and established a new standard for the size category, said Plasticstoday.

The new stock container for juices and teas utilizes novel design, tooling and process technologies to trim 9g, or 13.2%, from the typical 68g PET bottle.

Amcor's Innovation Group developed the patent-pending Powerblock 3.0 technology to provide a lightweight and strong hot-fill stock PET bottle with advanced filling and stacking performance. The hot-fill container also features a 38-mm lightweight finish compared to the standard 43-mm finish for 64-oz PET bottles.

Multiple utility and design patents are pending for the Powerblock 3.0 container. Amcor said that one patent covers an optimized conical base pushup with special diameter and height ratios and relationships. Another patent covers a round or rectangular base with strap-like features that are added to create a footed-style base. The segmented standing surface consists of four standing 1-inch columns.

Together, these technologies work synergistically to unlock material normally trapped in the base area. This allows for better material distribution in the container body, resulting in a lighter weight container without sacrificing performance, Amcor stated. Angles, ratios and other bottle geometry are optimized to obtain a balanced response to vacuum, pressure, and top-load forces.

While Powerblock 3.0 is initially targeted for 64-oz hot-fill containers, Amcor expects to adapt the technology to other hot-fill bottles. Amcor has completed all development and the stock bottle is already commercial in several locations across the U.S.

As MRC wrote earlier, the rising Australian dollar and cost pressures have pushed global packaging manufacturer Amcor Ltd. to shut two manufacturing sites and to downsize another site.

Amcor Limited is an Australian-based multinational packaging company. It operates manufacturing plants in 42 countries. It is the world's largest manufacturer of plastic bottles.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and Xinjiang Markor Chemical Industry (Markor) plan to establish two joint ventures for the production of butanediol (BDO) and polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF, chemical name: polytetramethylene ether glycol ) in Korla, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Northwest China, according to BASF's press release.

The joint venture agreements have already been signed but are subject to further closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The joint venture companies intend to build a plant for the production of BDO and one for PolyTHF which are planned to go on stream in 2015. The annual capacities of the plants located in Korla will be 100,000 tonnes of BDO and 50,000 tonnes of PolyTHF.

PolyTHF is primarily used to make elastic spandex fibers for a large variety of textiles, including underwear, outerwear, sportswear and swimsuits. It also serves as a chemical building block for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) used to make hoses, films and cable sheathing. Other applications include thermoplastic polyetheresters, polyetheramides and cast elastomers for the production of for example wheels for skateboards and inline skates. BDO is used in the manufacturing of technical plastics, polyurethanes, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibres.

We remind that, as MRC reported previously, BASF had recently announced plans to build a new plant for the production of acrylic polymers and emulsions at its integrated production Verbund site in Freeport, Texas, USA.

Xinjiang Markor Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Markor Investment Group Co., Ltd. which was founded in 2004. It is located in Markor Chemical Park in Economic and Technological Development zone, Korla, Xinjiang, China. Markor currently produces BDO with an annual capacity of 160,000 tonnes and is the largest producer of BDO in China. To date, the company has invested RMB 5 billion (about EUR600 million) in Markor Chemical Park.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company, which portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. The company posted sales of EUR78.7 billion in 2012 and had more than 113,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF produces PolyTHF with an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes at its sites in Geismar, Louisiana, USA; Ludwigshafen, Germany; Ulsan, Korea and Shanghai, Caojing, China. The company produces BDO with an annual capacity of 535,000 tonnes at its sites in Geismar; Ludwigshafen; Caojing; Chiba, Japan and Kuantan, Malaysia.
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