Dow METEOR technology selected for new MEGlobal facility on the U.S. Gulf

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Dow Chemical Company announced that MEGlobal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EQUATE Petrochemical Company, has undertaken a competitive evaluation process and has selected Dow METEOR Ethylene Oxide/Ethylene Glycol (EO/EG) Process Technology and METEOR EO-RETRO Catalyst to construct its monoethylene glycol (MEG) production facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast – its first manufacturing unit in the U.S., said the company on its site.

"We are very pleased that MEGlobal selected Dow’s EO/EG technology and catalyst for its first U.S. MEG facility," said Faye Miller, Dow global commercial director, Licensing & Catalysts. "This is state-of-the-art technology for a world-class facility, and we expect MEGlobal to reap the many rewards that come from Dow’s catalyst technology and the unique process simplicity that is the hallmark of the METEOR process."

Dow’s METEOR Technology is the industry leading, low capital technology for world-scale EO/EG manufacturing facilities. It combines a high activity and high selectivity catalyst with a streamlined process design that results in lower capital and energy cost, high raw material efficiency, excellent operational reliability, and inherent safety and environmental features.

To date, Dow has licensed METEOR Technology for plants around the world with capacities to produce approximately 4.5 mln metric tpa of ethylene oxide equivalents. Plans to construct the new 700 kta MEG production facility werre previously announced in March 2016. The unit is expected to come online in mid-2019. It will be adjacent to Dow’s Oyster Creek site in Freeport, Texas.

As MRC informed earlier, Dow Chemical Company recently became the first company to receive a trading license from the Government of Saudi Arabia, allowing 100% ownership in the country’s trading sector, expanding Dow’s long history of partnership and investment in the Kingdom.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The decision by the British electorate to leave the European Union raises a number of questions and poses some implications form the perspective of chemical regulations and policy, said Chemweek.

"Most chemical regulatory legislation in the UK and other member states is derived from the European Union," says Dave Gordon, environmental partner, chemicals industry group at law firm Squire Patton Boggs (London). The European Union has implemented a number of regulations related to chemicals, including the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH); the Classification, Labelling, and Packaging (CLP) Regulation; and the Biocidal Products Regulation. These regulations are directly applicable, without the need for national implementation legislation, with national law only having to deal with enforcement and penalties, according to Gordon.

Once the United Kingdom is no longer a part of the European Union, a large number of directly applicable EU laws - such as REACH - would cease to have effect in the United Kingdom, and it would be necessary to replace or duplicate these laws in UK domestic law, Gordon says. "Given the huge list of laws that would need to be reviewed, it is highly unlikely that new legal regimes would be finalized prior to the exit taking effect," Gordon says. "It seems more likely that these laws would be gradually reviewed and that some sort of interim legislation would need to be put in place."

The deadline for the third and final round of REACH is 31 May 2018, by which time it seems unlikely that Brexit would have taken place. REACH would thus still apply to the United Kingdom, and British chemical companies would still have to comply with the deadline and the registration requirements. And in any case British companies exporting chemicals to the European Union must comply with REACH and the other EU chemical legislation. On the other hand, when a substance is imported into the European Union from the United Kingdom, post-Brexit, the importing entity would be treated as an importer under REACH. "That could trigger registration requirements for EU entities that had previously been downstream users, and that would not have previously been expecting to register [chemicals themselves]," says Gordon.

In addition, should the British decided to continue to apply REACH post-Brexit, it is not clear whether British companies would have access to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA; Helsinki) or its REACH-related databases, according to Gordon. Non-EU countries exporting chemicals into the United Kingdom after Brexit would no longer have to comply with REACH, but would have to comply with whatever UK domestic legislation that was implemented to replace REACH. That would then add complexity to managing exports to Europe, Gordon says.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell Process Solutions’ (HPS) Experion HS process automation system has been implemented at Kuban Oil and Gas Co.’s Ilsky refinery, one of the largest refineries in Russia’s Krasnodar Territory, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new automation system will help the refinery improve process performance and minimize costs, while maintaining a high level of safety. Experion HS comprises a subset of Experion PKS components specifically packaged to provide a targeted and robust system for small to medium automation projects. The technology impacts the unit operations by streamlining work processes, and providing greater access to key process parameters and data of the refinery. A higher level of operator performance helps meet the increasing demand of refinery’s products in the region.

Honeywell supplied the Ilsky refinery with a complete set of services for building an integrated production control system based on its hybrid HC900 controllers. The automation solution focuses on the refinery’s AT-5 crude distillation unit, which has a capacity of 1.5 MMtpy. Experion HS supports up to 8,000 input/output (I/O) points, 10 operator stations, and various network servers and nodes at the Ilsky refinery. The HC900 controllers provide logic control and have a modular design to meet the control and data collection needs of a wide range of process equipment.

The new automation system will help the refinery improve process performance and minimize costs, while maintaining a high level of safety. Experion HS comprises a subset of Experion PKS components specifically packaged to provide a targeted and robust system for small to medium automation projects. The technology impacts the unit operations by streamlining work processes, and providing greater access to key process parameters and data of the refinery. A higher level of operator performance helps meet the increasing demand of refinery’s products in the region.

Honeywell supplied the Ilsky refinery with a complete set of services for building an integrated production control system based on its hybrid HC900 controllers. The automation solution focuses on the refinery’s AT-5 crude distillation unit, which has a capacity of 1.5 MMtpy. Experion HS supports up to 8,000 input/output (I/O) points, 10 operator stations, and various network servers and nodes at the Ilsky refinery. The HC900 controllers provide logic control and have a modular design to meet the control and data collection needs of a wide range of process equipment.

As MRC informed earlier, Honeywell announced that its Honeywell UOP business broke ground on a new manufacturing capacity outside Shanghai to produce materials used to convert methanol from coal into feedstocks for making plastics, a significant milestone to enable China to meet the growing demand for plastics.

Honeywell UOP has an 80-year history in China, beginning in 1937 when it built one of China’s first refineries in Yumen. It was one of the first American companies invited back to China during the 1970s, to help modernize the Chinese petroleum industry. More recently, Honeywell UOP hydroprocessing and Platforming technology has helped China develop cleaner-burning transportation fuels to combat air pollution.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis, a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers, announces that it has fully acquired the German plastics recyclers mtm plastics GmbH and mtm compact GmbH, said the company on its site.

Based in Niedergebra, Germany, mtm plastics GmbH is regarded as a technology leader in the recycling of mixed post-consumer plastic waste and as one of Europe's largest producers of post-consumer polyolefin recyclates.

The sister companies mtm plastics GmbH and mtm compact GmbH will become members of the Borealis Group. The two Managing Directors will remain in their roles to ensure business continuity.

"Over the past decade, innovations are increasingly addressing sustainability issues and caused stakeholders to rethink and reshape their approach to value creation. As a leader in our industry, it is a part of our responsibility to be in the driving seat to couple growth ambitions with providing solutions to solve society's global challenges," explains Alfred Stern, Borealis Executive Vice President Polyolefins and Innovation & Technology. "This is why we are fully committed to the principles or the circular economy and with this acquisition we now take our engagement to plastics recycling to the next level."

As MRC informed earlier, in April 2016, Borealis AG and PAO Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding. The document reflects the parties' interest in evaluating opportunities to develop joint gas chemical projects in Russia.


Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. With headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Borealis currently employs around 6,500 and operates in over 120 countries. It generated EUR 8.3 billion in sales revenue in 2014.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mondi Group has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding share capital of ZAO Uralplastic-N (Uralplastic) from Joint Stock Company Rusnano and a private investor, said the company on its site.

Uralplastic operates one plant near Ekaterinburg, in the Ural region of Russia and manufactures a range of consumer flexible packaging products for food, hygiene, homecare and other applications. The company serves both local and international customers. For the year ended 31 December 2015 Uralplastic generated revenues of RUB1,988 million (EUR 29.2 million) and adjusted EBITDA of RUB318 million (EUR 4.7 million).

Commenting on the acquisition, David Hathorn, Chief executive of Mondi Group, said: "The acquisition of Uralplastic supports the development of our Consumer Packaging business and strengthens our presence in the Russian consumer packaging market, complementing our existing plant in Pereslavl, near Moscow and allowing us to improve our offering to customers in this growing market."

The transaction is expected to complete in July 2016.

Mondi is an international packaging and paper Group, employing around 25,000 people across more than 30 countries. Key operations are located in central Europe, Russia, North America and South Africa. In 2015, Mondi had revenues of EUR6.8 billion and a return on capital employed of 20.5%. The Mondi Group is fully integrated across the packaging and paper value chain - from managing forests and producing pulp, paper and compound plastics, to developing effective and innovative industrial and consumer packaging solutions. Our innovative technologies and products can be found in a variety of applications including hygiene components, stand-up pouches, super-strong cement bags, clever retail boxes and office paper.
MRC