Inner Mongolia Yili shut down PVC plant in China for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Inner Mongolia Yili has shut a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant was shut on October 9, 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located at Erdos in Inner Mongolia, the plant has a production capacity of 500,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) shut down its PVC plant in China for maintenance turnaround on September 9, 2014. It was planned to remain shut for around one month. Located at Ningbo in Zhejiang province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

We remind that Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical shut down two PVC plants for maintenance turnaround in July 2014. The duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in Xinjiang, China, the plants have a combined production capacity of 800,000 mt/year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- CB&I has been awarded a contract by Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co. for the license and engineering design of a polypropylene (PP) unit to be built in Lingwu, China, project officials announced on Thursday, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The unit will use CB&I's Novolen technology to produce 600,000 tpy of PP. There are already two units utilizing Novolen technology on site - each with cascade and parallel production lines.

At the completion of this third unit, the capacity on site will be increased to 1.6 million tpy and the plant will be able to produce the full range of polypropylene grades.

"Once the third polypropylene unit at Shenhua Ningxia's site is running, it will be the largest polypropylene site in China," said Daniel McCarthy, president of CB&I's technology operating group. "This site will also have the largest capacity of any of the Novolen technology licensees."

As MRC said previously, Shenhua Ningxia also awarded CB&I contracts for the license and engineering design of the olefins conversion technology, comonomer production technology, CDHydro selective hydrogenation technology and CDIsis technology for this same complex.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, confirms that in its draft Alternatives Assessment report on flame retardants in flexible foam released in June, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified Clariant’s oligomeric phosphonate polyol (OPP) flame retardant - marketed under the trade name Exolit OP 560 - as a safer alternative to pentabromo diphenylether (pentaBDE), traditionally used for giving fire protection to foam, reported the company on its site.

This is good news for the upholstery industry and other sectors looking for safer, environmentally more compatible flame retardants that meet internationally accepted flammability standards for flexible polyurethane foam.

The report is part of the EPA’s Design for the Environment program, which helps industries choose safer chemicals, and offers a basis for future decision-making by providing a detailed comparison of the potential public health and environmental impacts of chemical alternatives.

Exolit OP 560 is a reactive flame retardant that eliminates unwanted emissions since it becomes chemically bonded within the polymeric polyurethane foam structure. As a result, the Exolit OP 560 cannot leave the foam during use. Exolit OP is also halogen-free, and has a more favorable toxicological and environmental profile. In particular, it cannot bioaccumulate in humans and other organisms since it is "locked" into the foam. Further benefits for PU applications include excellent ageing stability, as well as low smoke density and smoke gas corrosivity in case of a fire. The phosphonate’s high effectiveness and good compatibility with natural polymers allow it to be used at low dosages in the foam matrix, which also adds to the foam’s excellent sustainability profile.

"Exolit OP 560 is not only halogen-free but becomes an integral part of the PU foam, creating possibilities to produce flexible foams with locked-in fire protection without the environmental and health concerns of traditional flame retardants," comments Adrian Beard, Head of Marketing Flame Retardants, Clariant. "The US-EPA report is a step forward in easing the identification of safer alternatives by PU foam producers and end-users."

Clariant is looking to expand capacity to meet increasing demand in the move toward more environmentally friendly and sustainable PU foams.

As MRC informed before, in June 2014, CB&I and Clariant announced that their new Ziegler-Natta (ZN) polypropylene catalyst plant in Louisville, Kentucky, is on schedule to begin production in 2015. The plant is part of a long-term strategic partnership between Clariant’s catalysts business and CB&I’s Lummus Novolen Technology business. Based at Clariant’s largest US production hub, the new facility will combine innovative catalysts jointly developed by both companies with high-capacity output.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Boardwalk Pipeline Partners has announced that it has completed the previously-announced acquisition of Chevron Petrochemical Pipeline LLC, which owns the Evangeline ethylene pipeline system, from Chevron Pipe Line, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Evangeline will be operated by Boardwalk Louisiana Midstream (BLM), a subsidiary of Boardwalk that provides transportation and storage services for ethylene and natural gas liquids (NGLs), natural gas storage and brine supply services for producers and consumers of petrochemicals through two hubs in southern Louisiana, the Sulphur Hub in the Lake Charles area and the Choctaw Hub in the Mississippi River Corridor.

"We are pleased to have completed the Evangeline acquisition that provides vertical integration with BLM’s extensive ethylene distribution system," said Kevin Miller, president of BLM.

"Adding these upstream assets strengthens BLM’s growth platform and further enhances our ability to provide reliable and flexible ethylene transportation and storage services to petrochemical customers in the growing Gulf Coast market," he added.

The Evangeline system is a 176-mi interstate pipeline capable of transporting approximately 2.6 billion lb/year of ethylene and is supported by long-term, fee-based contracts. Evangeline transports ethylene between Port Neches, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where it interconnects with BLM’s ethylene distribution system that includes BLM’s storage facilities at the Choctaw Hub.

As MRC wrote previously, in July 2014, United States supermajor Chevron gave up on conventional and unconventional gas exploration in Lithuania, having closed its office in Vilnius and ceded its stake in the company holding the Rietavas licence to Sweden’s Tethys Oil.

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bashneft has started pilot operations at a new hydrogen production unit at the Bashneft-Novoil Branch, Oct. 8, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The ceremony to mark the completion of the large-scale investment project was attended by the Deputy Chairman of the Government of Bashkortostan Dmitry Sharonov and JSOC Bashneft’s President Alexander Korsik.

‘Commissioning of the new unit is an important milestone in the implementation of our strategy for upgrading production capacities, and marks the transition of the company’s refineries to a new technological heights, ’highlighted Bashnneft President Alexander Korsik. "Implementation of this large-scale project will ensure that 100% of the gasoline and diesel fuel we produce meets Euro 5 standard, but also make an additional substantial contribution to environmental protection."

The commissioning of the hydrogen production unit marks the completion of an important stage in Bashneft’s Ufa refinery upgrade programme aimed at meeting the requirements of Russia’s Technical Regulations on engine fuel quality. Presently, the new unit is the largest in Russia, with its rated capacity of 420 tpd.

Upon commissioning, total hydrogen production at the company’s refineries will nearly triple; given close cooperation between production sites, this will enable to fully satisfy the need for hydrogen. The unit will enable Bashneft to ensure that all automotive fuels it produces meet the Euro 5 emission standard and have an extremely low sulphur content of less than 10 ppm (0.001%).

Construction of the unit started in September 2012. Over RUB 12 billion was invested in the project.

As MRC wrote before, The Moscow arbitration court froze the shares in OAO Bashneft, controlled by Evtushenkov’s OAO AFK Sistema, in connection with alleged violations during the privatization of the regional oil company.

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