SOCAR Polymer plant launches test production of polypropylene

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The first cargo of polypropylene was produced for testing purposes at the SOCAR Polymer, a polymer plant of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, in Sumgait city on Feb. 27, the SOCAR said in a message Feb. 28., as per Trend.

The test production process took place with the participation of SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev. As part of the working visit, Abdullayev visited facilities of the Azerikimya Production Union, a carbamide plant and the SOCAR Polymer plant.

"The work continues to update the technological units of the Azerikimya Production Union," the message noted. "The company is also working on the construction of new units and auxiliary sites. Azerikimya’s modernization will be completed in 2019."

Construction is at the completion stage at the SOCAR carbamide plant, and the adjustment work will begin in a month.

"Production (of ammonia) at the plant will be launched in August, and it is planned to start producing carbamide in October," the message said. "As many as 150,000 tons of products will meet the consumption needs in the domestic market, and Azerbaijan will annually save USD55 million, which are spent on the imports of carbamide. The remaining 450,000-500,000 tons of products will be sent for exports."

The polypropylene plant as part of the SOCAR Polymer project will be launched in the second quarter of this year, and the polyethylene plant will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year.

The SOCAR Polymer project is carried out in Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park.

At the first stage, production capacity of SOCAR Polymer will total 120,000 tons of polyethylene and 180,000 tons of polypropylene. The total capacity may reach 570,000 tons by 2021.

As MRC informed before, state owned energy company SOCAR’s Polymer investment project, which is first of its nature and scale implemented for the last 40 years in Azerbaijan’s downstream oil and gas industry, will make USD10-11 billion of revenues during the plant’s lifetime. Some 30% of this sum will be the net profit of the company. In the meantime, cooperate taxes and property taxes worth USD800 million and value added tax worth USD700 million will be paid to the government. PP and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) plants of SOCAR Polymer are being built within the Sumgayit chemical industrial park’s territory which was established by the decree of the President Ilham Aliyev and provides a number of significant privileges for its residents.

SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in domestic and international markets, as well as, supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan. Three production divisions, one oil refinery and one gas processing plant, a deep water platform fabrication yard, two trusts, one institution, and 23 subdivisions are operating as corporate entities under SOCAR.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Khalifa Industrial Zone of Abu Dhabi (Kizad) has signed an agreement with Shaheen Chem Investment for the land lease of a two-phase chemical complex in the industrial zone with an expected investment of AED 4 billion (USD 1.08 billion, as per GV.

The plant will support the UAE’s growing chemical manufacturing sector as well as supply major industrial giants such as Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) with raw material, said a statement from Kizad.

Shaheen Chem Investment will also pioneer the production of ethylene dichloride in the UAE, showcasing Kizad’s role as an industrial hub for the country.

The complex will come up over a dedicated 330,000 m2 area in Kizad, in addition to a dedicated port terminal at Khalifa Port, it stated.

The first phase of the plant is expected to produce 130,000 t/y of caustic soda for EGA’s Al Taweelah alumina refinery and 160,000 t/y of ethylene dichloride.

Upon completion of the second phase, caustic soda production capacity will be doubled and the plant will expand operations with vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride production, said the statement from Kizad.

Rashed Al Suwaidi, chairman of Shaheen Chem, said: "We now look forward to building our plant at Kizad to supply EGA with the caustic soda it needs. We are also excited to become the first producer of ethylene dichloride in the UAE and to later bringing vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride production to the country as part of phase II of the project."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - More than $200 billion of investment in liquefied natural gas is needed to meet a boom in demand by 2030, Royal Dutch Shell, the world's top LNG trader said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The LNG market is set to continue its rapid expansion into 2020 as facilities approved for construction in the first half of the decade come on line, in a development expected easily to meet sharp growth in consumption of the super-chilled fuel.

But a decline in spending in the sector since 2014 as a result of weaker energy prices will create a supply gap from the mid-2020s unless new investments emerge, Shell said in its 2018 LNG Outlook. LNG plants are complex and expensive, requiring large processing units, known as trains, that cool natural gas to around minus 160 degrees Celsius (minus 260 Fahrenheit). The liquefied fuel is then shipped to demand centres and converted back into gas.

While LNG demand is expected to grow from 293 million tonnes per year (mtpa) in 2017 to around 500 mtpa by 2030, supplies are seen slipping to 300 mtpa due to a lack of new projects and natural declines in existing production, Shell's head of integrated gas and new energies, Maarten Wetselaar, said.

The cost of developing the required capacity is roughly USD1 billion per mtpa, Wetselaar said. That does not include investments in the development of the gas fields associated with LNG plants, he told reporters.

"The industry is still looking at quite a challenge to build supplies to meet demand in the 2020s," he said. Shell is considering moving ahead on new projects such as LNG Canada and Lake Charles on the U.S. Gulf Coast, Wetselaar said. The Anglo-Dutch company is expected this year to launch the Prelude floating LNG plant in Western Australia, one of the largest and most complex gas projects in history.

"Our investment cycle is coming to an end with Prelude coming on stream this year. We will have the space to take investment decisions, (but) it doesn't necessarily mean we will spend the money."

Competition is fierce as projects have to face off against the lowest-cost gas hubs such as North America, where the shale boom has led to abundant and cheap supplies, as well as Qatar, Russia and East Africa.

"In order to take a final investment decision on a project of this size you want to make sure it is as low-cost as it can be because the cost of an LNG project ... is going to stick with you for 30, 40 years," Wetselaar said.

In its annual report - a legacy from BG Group, which the company acquired in 2016 - Shell forecast global demand for gas to grow by an average 2 percent per year until 2035. That would make gas the fastest-growing source of energy over the period.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CB&I has announced that its CDAlky technology has been selected by Valero Refining - New Orleans LLC for its St. Charles Alkylation Project located in Norco, Louisiana, said the company on its site.

CB&I's overall scope of supply on the project includes CDAlky technology license, basic engineering and proprietary equipment. When it becomes operational in 2020, the new CDAlky unit will produce 25,000 BPD alkylate from FCC-derived olefin feedstocks.

"CB&I and Valero have a long-standing, cooperative relationship," said Daniel M. McCarthy, CB&I's Executive Vice President of Technology. "We are proud to partner with Valero on this project, and we value the level of trust they have placed in our technology. Our CDAlky technology has continued to build upon a strong international record of success, and this first project in the United States will lead the way for future success in the Americas."

CB&I's CDAlky technology is an advanced low-temperature sulfuric acid alkylation process that produces a high-octane, premium gasoline blending component with less environmental impact, while also reducing overall maintenance and chemicals costs for refineries.

As MRC wrote before, in March 2017, Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, 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.

CB&I is a leading provider of technology and infrastructure for the energy industry. With more than 125 years of experience, CB&I provides reliable solutions to our customers around the world while maintaining a relentless focus on safety and an uncompromising standard of quality.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- As a global solution provider to automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, Henkel continues to drive significant progress in sustainable light weighting technologies with new composite and adhesive products and extended global Composite Lab capabilities, as per Automotiveworld.

Henkel’s specialists will be available to discuss the benefits of the company’s broad technology portfolio and global service capacities for composite applications in automotive and other demanding industries during JEC World 2018 on Booth G48 in Hall 6.

Among the highlights on display will be Henkel’s new Loctite MAX 5 matrix resin for carbon fiber reinforced composite wheels. The new technology is designed to replace aluminum in this demanding chassis application and builds on the recent success of Loctite MAX 2 for use in glass fiber reinforced leaf springs. The new resin combines high temperature resistance, excellent toughness and long-term durability with rapid mold filling, thorough fiber impregnation and high curing rates for cost-efficient large volume production.

Another spotlight will be on the company’s new Loctite UK 2032 adhesive for multi-substrate designs, following the strong response to Loctite UK 2015 introduced at last year’s JEC. Both adhesives are ideally suited for bonding structural parts made of composite materials with distinctly different coefficients of thermal expansion, from plastics to e-coated steel or aluminum.

Loctite UK 2032 and Loctite UK 2015 are specifically designed to meet automotive performance requirements as well as high volume production demands.

Furthermore, Henkel will show various demonstration parts molded in new RTM test tools at the company’s Heidelberg Composite Lab. This includes thick leaf spring test parts as well as parts with a complex 3D geometry. In the Composite Lab Henkel also does preforming of these parts made with the Henkel Binder Loctite FRP 2000.

"There is an ongoing strong trend for further light weighting in automotive, with a clear focus on chassis components and integrated multi-substrate designs engineered to meet the industry’s strict fleet fuel consumption and CO? regulation targets," says Konrad Brimo Hayek, Senior Business Development Manager – Chassis, ADAS & Safety for Henkel.

"With our comprehensive product portfolio for the composites industry, including matrix resins, multi-substrate adhesives, binders and release agents, we are determined to play a leading role in this market as a global solutions partner with extensive customer support capabilities. Above all, this also includes Henkel’s dedicated two Composite Labs in Europe (Germany) and Asia (Japan), providing advanced process know-how, application engineering and customer trial facilities," Brimo Hayek adds.

Henkel will present its matrix resins and multi-substrate adhesives for large-scale composite production on March 8th, 12.30 pm.

MRC