DuPont Industrial Biosciences to sell cellulosic ethanol plant in blow to biofuel

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Industrial Biosciences, a unit of DowDuPont Inc, said it halted operations at a two-year-old ethanol plant and will sell it, dealing another blow to efforts to create biofuels without using food crops, reported Reuters.

The decision to shut the Iowa plant comes as political winds are undercutting efforts to produce ethanol from plant waste and wood shavings. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this year has pushed to lower the amount of cellulosic biofuels that need to be blended into the nation’s fuels under a 2007 mandate, arguing the industry has not produced enough.

DuPont spent about USD225 million to build the facility, which used corn stalks and stems to make ethanol, which is blended into gasoline. The plant was designed to produce 30 million gallons a year.

The EPA predicted in 2007 that U.S. cellulosic ethanol production could hit 1 billion gallons by 2020, but output this year is expected to reach only 7 million gallons, according to Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), a trade group.

High production costs and still-maturing technology have undercut the rationale for cellulosic biofuel, part of the original goal to use biofuels to help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

"Cellulosic biofuel innovators have been dealing with mixed policy signals and tremendous regulatory uncertainty for the past decade," RFA Chief Executive Bob Dinneen said in an interview.

Refiners such as PBF Energy, which must blend biofuels into the nation’s fuel pool or buy credits from those who do, have opposed the mandates.

"This is yet another example of why the nation’s biofuel mandate needs fundamental reform. More than a decade after the cellulosic portion of the mandate was passed, the fuel is still nonexistent," PBF Energy lobbyist Brendan Williams said.

A DuPont Industrial Biosciences spokeswoman said the EPA’s plan to decrease cellulosic biofuel volumes played no role in shutting the plant.

DuPont and rivals POET-DSM and Abengoa SA built large-scale cellulosic ethanol plants to take advantage of the 2007 biofuels mandate. Abengoa sold its 25-million-gallon Kansas facility for USD48.5 million about a year ago.

As MRC informed earlier, in late September 2017, DowDuPont Materials Science, the business division of newly formed DowDupont, commissioned ethylene and polyethylene (PE) units in Freeport, Tex., as part of Dow Chemical Co.'s previously announced USD6-billion US Gulf Coast (USGC) investment program in Texas and Louisiana on projects to utilize low-cost and advantaged US shale gas feedstock. The 1.5 million-tonne/year ethylene plant and 400,000-tpy PE plant - which is based on Dow’s proprietary Solution process technology for production of the company’s ELITE brand enhanced PE resins - were both in operation as of Sept. 21.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco plans to raise its spending to USD414 B over the next 10 yr, including on infrastructure and drilling, as the state oil giant moves into new businesses, executives said, as per Reuters.

The spending plan is higher than Aramco's projection last year of around USD334 B by 2025, as the oil producer has been expanding its businesses, the company's chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday. "We are into so many sectors now," Nasser told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference aimed at promoting the kingdom's industrial base and the manufacture of a bigger share of products domestically.

Saudi Aramco's plan includes USD134 B to spend on drilling and well services and USD78 B to maintain oil output potential, Nassir Al Yami, general manager for procurement, told a conference in Dammam. Aramco has already created a department for renewables to develop wind and solar projects and last month it signed a preliminary deal with petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) to build a USD20 B complex to convert crude oil to chemicals.

The project, which the partners said would be the largest crude-to-chemicals facility in the world and the first in the kingdom, are part of the Saudi government’s effort to diversify the economy beyond exporting crude. The kingdom's “Vision 2030” economic reform plan aims at ending its reliance on oil and to stimulate the domestic non-oil private sector. Its centerpiece is a plan to sell up to 5% of Aramco in an initial public offering (IPO) next year.

Saudi Aramco outlined a plan known as In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) 2 yr ago, aimed at doubling the percentage of locally produced energy-related goods and services to 70% of the total spent by 2021. "Saudi Aramco is expected to spend more than 1 T Saudi riyals over the next decade. That has not changed, and we still want to see 70% of those riyals being spent locally," Nasser said.

Supporting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a main part of the IKTVA drive and Saudi Vision 2030, which would help create over 40,000 jobs and could add around 30 B riyals to the kingdom's annual GDP, Nasser said. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) said in October it is creating a 4 B riyal (USD1.07 B) “fund of funds” to support SMEs.
MRC

Last month's SPVC imports to Ukraine dropped to 5,900 tonnes from 6,500 tonnes in October because of seasonal factors. Local producers of plasticized PVC reduced their purchasing of resin under the pressure of seasonal factors. Overall SPVC imports were 94,800 tonnes in January-November 2017, compared to 100,500 tonnes a year earlier. The resumption of the domestic production in July after several years of shutdown at Karpatneftekhim allowed to reduce dependence on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) imports.

The structure of PVC imports into the Ukrainian market looked the following way over the stated period.

Last month's imports of US PVC were 3,200 tonnes versus 4,100 tonnes in October, the largest cable plastic compounds producer significantly reduced its shipments. Imports of North American resin totalled 47,900 tonnes in January-November 2017 versus 54,500 tonnes a year earlier.

November shipments of European PVC to the Ukrainian market virtually remained at the level of October and were 2,100 tonnes. Overall imports of European PVC fell to 31,500 tonnes over the stated period from 37,900 tonnes a year earlier.

Last month's SPVC shipments from Russia rose to 460 tonnes from 260 tonnes in October, Russian producers substantially reduced their export sales in the autumn months because of a shortage in the Russian domestic market. Imports of Russian resin totalled 13,400 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2017, compared to 7,300 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Russia totalled about 46,900 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2017, whereas last year's figure exceeded 123,900 tonnes. At the same time, Russian producers managed to increase their exports by 44%, according to MRC's DataScope report.

November PVC imports into the country grew to 4,000 tonnes, compared with 581 tonnes in October. A serious drop in export prices for acetylene PVC in China was the main reason for the increase in imports last month. Thus, January-November SPVC imports into the country totalled about 46,900 tonnes compared with 123,900 tonnes year on year; the peak of imports in 2017 was seen in May with 11,800 tonnes imported. The reduction in domestic demand and the high level of capacity utilisation of local producers led to a serious reduction in the dependence on imports of PVC, while the increased supply of tar in the domestic market forced producers to export more actively.

Chinese producers traditionally were the key foreign PVC suppliers for the past several years. The volume of imports of acetylene Chinese PVC A significant increased in November to 3,300 tonnes against 77 tonnes a month earlier due to a drop in export prices.
Quite a big volumes of acetylene PVC are expected to arrive in December. Thus, imports of Chinese resin were 42,800 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2017, compared to 95,700 tonnes a year earlier.

European producers shipped small quantities of suspension, overall imports of European PVC fell to 3,500 tonnes over the stated period from 6,400 tonnes a year earlier. Weaker demand for PVC from the domestic market forced Russian producers to export material more actively, especially in winter.

9,100 tonnes were shipped to foreign markets last month (excluding deliveries to the countries of the Customs Union) versus 1,200 tonnes in October. Some producers have begun to increase exports to countries in Asia, in particular, India since November. PVC exports in December are also expected to be quite significant. 77,900 tonnes of SPVC were shipped in the first eleven months of 2017, compared to 54,000 tonnes a year earlier.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a company in specialty chemicals, announced an agreement with Xuzhou HaiDing Chemical Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a custom-built CATOFIN catalyst and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in cooperation with its technology partner CB&I, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Pizhou, Jiangsu Province, China.

The Xuzhou HaiDing plant is designed to produce 600 KTA of propylene and will be based on Clariant’s CATOFIN catalytic dehydrogenation technology, which employs the company’s CATOFIN catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM).

CATOFIN is a dehydrogenation catalyst used for the production of olefins, such as propylene or isobutylene, from light paraffin feedstocks. HGM is a patented metal-oxide material loaded with the catalyst that increases the selectivity and yield of CATOFIN units. To maximize the yield of propane to propylene, the process operates at thermodynamically advantaged reactor pressure and temperature and utilizes a highly selective catalyst.

Globally, nine CATOFIN propane dehydrogenation units have been successfully commissioned and continue to reliably produce more than 4,500 KTA of propylene.

As MRC informed earlier, in March 2017, Clariant announced that it had been awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world.

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. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC