Trinseo presents new S-SBR grades at the Tire Technology Expo 2018

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, has highlighted its new S-SBR grades that address a diverse set of market needs - balancing energy efficiency with good processability - at the Tire Technology Expo 2018, as per GV.

In addition, the company announced that it will give an update on its new S-SBR pilot plant and the capacity expansion at the manufacturing plant in Schkopau, Germany.

"The strategic investments in our new S-SBR pilot plant and manufacturing plant ensures our customers’ competitiveness by accelerating the time to market for new performance tyre innovations," said Samer Al Jabi, Trinseo’s global business director, Synthetic Rubber. "The pilot plant will deliver sufficient quantities of diverse S-SBR formulations required for real-life tyre testing, meeting our customers’ growing needs for reduced product validation time."

During the expo, Dr. Sandra Hofmann, Technology and Innovation Director Synthetic Rubber, and Dr. Sven Thiele, Research & Development Leader Process and Product Development Anionic, presented advanced S-SBR, butadiene rubbers (BR), and new functionalisation technologies designed to achieve low rolling resistance, greater tyre safety and enhanced processability.

"Our advanced anionic polymerisation technology a"lows for excellent control of key parameters for reducing rolling resistance. Today, Trinseo has taken functionalisation technol"y to the next level by applying multi-functionalisation techniques," said Dr. Hofmann. "Our product portfolio includes a diverse set of functionalised and multi-functionalised S-SBR."

As MRC wrote before, Trinseo and its affiliate companies in Europe increased February prices for all polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile styrene copolymer (SAN) gradese, as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by EUR250 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-TECH high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR270 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR250 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR200 per metric ton.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo has approximately 18 manufacturing sites around the world, and more than 2,200 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Devon-Parker Hannifin Corporation, the global leader in motion and control technologies, has signed a new Enterprise Framework Agreement (EFA) with Shell for the provision of instrumentation valves, manifolds, process-to-instrument valves, fittings, tubing, protective enclosures and related products, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

As per the EFA spanning 4 years, Parker’s Instrumentation Group will supply a broad range of process instrumentation products to Shell and its affiliates worldwide.

"Parker is proud to be associated with Shell. Our engineering and commercial acumen demonstrate our capabilities as a key supplier in the energy market”, said Andrew Spivey, General Manager of Parker Hannifin's Instrumentation Products Division in Europe. "We have collaborated with Shell on engineering projects, and this has given us a front row view of emerging technical challenges in critical application areas."

"We are proud to see our clients place their confidence in our products and services." adds Nicolas Villemain, Division Market Development Manager of Parker Hannifin Instrumentation Products Division in Europe. "We believe that such cooperative relationships between major players in their respective spheres will help establish new standards for performance, safety and cost reduction."

Over the last decade, Parker has invested heavily in innovation, and has made many significant advances in areas including safety, speed of installation and maintenance, and lowering emissions. In particular, Parker’s new products can dramatically reduce the number of potential leak paths in a fluid system technology, and improve ergonomics for instrumentation and maintenance engineers. Its core values engineering customer challenges capture the company's goal of leadership in the process instrumentation market.

Also important is Parker’s long experience in designing and manufacturing instrumentation using corrosion resistant alloys that optimize protection in upstream and downstream environments - a major problem for many current oil and gas projects.

As MRC informed before, in January 2018, Royal Dutch Shell spent over USD400 million on a range of acquisitions, from solar power to electric car charging points, cranking up its drive to expand beyond its oil and gas business and reduce its carbon footprint.

Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom.Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the fourth largest company in the world as of 2014, in terms of revenue, and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of polyethylene (PE) into Belarus dropped in 2017 by 4.8% year on year, reaching 123,600 tonnes.
Local companies increased their purchasing of all PE grades, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), as per MRC's DataScope report.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Belarus, December 2017 PE imports to Belarus grew to 11,200 tonnes from 9,100 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies increased their purchasing of PE in Russia and Ukraine. Overall PE imports into the country reached 123,600 tonnes over the stated period versus 129,800 tonnes a year earlier. Demand for low density polyethylene (LDPE) and HDPE increased, whereas linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) imports decreased.

The structure of PE imports to Belarus by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

December total LDPE imports decreased to 3,300 tonnes from 3,600 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies reduced slightly their PE purchasing in Azerbaijan. Overall imports of this PE grade into Belarus totalled about 36,800 tonnes in 2017, compared to 23,200 tonnes a year earlier.

December LLDPE imports were 1,700 tonnes versus 1,400 tonnes a month earlier, local companies significantly raised their purchasing of Middle Eastern butene PE. Thus, overall LLDPE imports exceeded 34,800 tonnes in January - December 2017, whereas this figure was about 52,700 tonnes a year earlier.

December HDPE imports rose to 6,200 tonnes from 4,000 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies increased their purchasing of PE in Russia and Ukraine.Overall HDPE imports into the country were about 52,000 tonnes in January-December 2017, up by 16% year on year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in Specialty Chemicals, and its Healthcare Packaging business unit, is introducing a new brand name to encompass all of the products and technology related to equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) stabilization. The announcement is being made at Pharmapack Europe 2018, as per the company's press release.

The new brand - EQius - will be used as an umbrella brand for products currently marketed as EQ-Pak packets, EQ-Can canisters, EQ-Stopper closures, and EQ-Bag bags, along with the raw material that goes in them. The different forms make it possible to customize humidity control throughout the drug-product development cycle, from bulk ingredients to finished pharmaceuticals.

"When Clariant first introduced the 'EQ' concept, we offered only two forms - packets and canisters," recalls Elisa Le Floch, Pharm.D., Clariant Healthcare Packaging, Business Development Manager. "Since then, we have doubled the size of our portfolio of humidity-control packaging solutions and now make them available all over the world."

The EQius products are made using specially engineered sorbents that can act as humectants (desorbers) and desiccants (adsorbers) simultaneously, maintaining a particular equilibrium relative humidity inside product packaging. This line of standard equilibrium-stabilizer products can maintain ERH levels of 10%, 20%, or 30% to help protect finished drug products in bottles or tubes, or to help protect bulk ingredients (powders, capsules) in boxes or bags before, during, or after tableting or filling operations.

"While hydrolytic degradation of drugs can be addressed by removing substantially all humidity entering the packaging using a desiccant," Le Floch explains. "Specific drug properties may require that a specific range of humidity be maintain throughout the shelf life of a drug product or ingredient." Typical examples include micronized drug powders used in inhalers or gelatin capsules. In these and other applications both too much humidity and too little can cause unacceptable damage.

The existing Clariant humidity-equilibrium products themselves will not change. Once fully in place, the EQius brandname - which will be clearly printed on each unit - can be expected to make things simpler for customers. This new single and strong brand will likely offer increased protection against counterfeiting.

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2017, Clariant was 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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A USD3.1 billion project to introduce crude processing flexibility, at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) owned Ruwais oil refinery, was announced in February, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Known as the Crude Flexibility Project (CFP), the announcement is another significant step forward as ADNOC accelerates delivery of its Downstream refining strategy that aims to enhance margins by introducing asset flexibility, backed by strong crude and product marketing initiatives.

The announcement follows the awarding of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract, for the project, to a joint venture between Samsung Engineering (Korea) and CB&I (Netherlands).

The refinery modifications, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022, will enable ADNOC’s Ruwais Refinery-West complex to process up to 420,000 bpd of Upper Zakum crude, or similar crude types from the market, liberating Murban crude, which commands a higher price on global oil markets, to be utilised for export sales.

Abdulaziz Abdulla Alhajri, Director of ADNOC’s Downstream Directorate said: "Enabling the Ruwais Refinery-West to process Upper Zakum, or similar, medium sour crude, in place of Murban light sweet crude, will allow us to extract greater value from our crude resources. It will mean we can maximise the benefit of price differentials to enhance refinery margins, improve the middle distillate products and release valuable Murban crude into the market."

The planned modifications will add an Atmospheric Residue De-Sulphurisation (ARDS) unit that will enable the refinery to process the Upper Zakum crude, or other similar crudes from the market. The ARDS technology is extensively used in upgrading medium to heavy petroleum oils and residues to more valuable clean environmentally friendly transportation fuels and to partially convert the residues to produce low-sulfur fuel oil and hydrotreated feedstocks.

As part of the selection criteria for the EPC contract, ADNOC Refining carefully considered the extent to which bidders would help to drive In-Country Value (ICV) for the UAE. By integrating ICV criteria into the commercial evaluation process, ADNOC aims to maximise spend on local goods and services, to support socio-economic growth, improve knowledge transfer, and create job opportunities for UAE nationals.

As MRC informed before, in May 2017, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) announced that it would work together with the Austrian producer OMV to help grow Adnoc’s downstream businesses.
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