NOVA Chemicals takes action to prevent plastic debris from reaching the Ocean

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis’ sister company NOVA Chemicals today announced a three-year investment of nearly USD 2 million (EUR 1.5 million) to prevent plastic debris from reaching the ocean, as per the company's press release.

The investment supports Project STOP, a new global initiative to design and implement solutions to reduce marine plastic pollution especially in countries with high leakage of plastics into our oceans.

Southeast Asia has been identified as a major source of marine plastic debris as economic development and plastics consumption have outpaced the expansion of waste management systems in the region. Project STOP has chosen Indonesia as a primary focus region.

"We understand the growing concern about marine plastic pollution and agree we must take meaningful action to address this challenge. NOVA Chemicals’ investment demonstrates our commitment to shaping a world that is even better tomorrow than it is today,” said John Thayer, Senior Vice President, Polyethylene Business at NOVA Chemicals. “Plastics are too valuable to be thrown away or left as litter. We’re working with Project STOP to find high-impact solutions to prevent plastic pollution in critical locations around the world."

"Project STOP represents an important step towards creating a plastics circular economy. We are more than pleased that, after our joint venture with Borouge, our sister company NOVA Chemicals joins forces with us in this industry-leading initiative,” explained Alfred Stern, CEO of Borealis. “The collaboration of Borealis, Borouge and NOVA Chemicals highlights our commitment to proactively help solve the issue of ocean plastic."

NOVA Chemicals’ investment will support the first city partnership in Muncar, a coastal fishing community located in Banyuwangi, Indonesia. With minimal waste services in place, many citizens are forced to dump their waste directly into the environment. Muncar was chosen as the first STOP location due to the seriousness of the challenge, coupled with strong leadership and environmental commitment at national, regency and local levels.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical is likely to restart its No.3 polypropylene (PP) unit in Guangdong, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has planned to resume operations at its PP unit on September 1, 2018. The unit was shut for maintenance on August 24, 2018.

Located in Guangdong, China, the No. 3 PP unit has a capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, on 26 August, 2018, Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical restarted its No. 2 low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit in Guangdong, following a brief maintenance. The unit was shut on August 22, 2018. Located at Guangdong in China, the No. 2 unit has a production capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company (Maoming Company) - a subsidiary of Sinopec- is located in Maoming, Guangdong and was founded in May 1955. The company now has a crude oil processing capacity of 13.5 million t/a and an ethylene production capacity of 1 million t/a. Maoming Company has turned out to be a large-scale integrated refining and chemical enterprise with refining as the leading business and petrochemical sector as the mainstay.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai and New York . Sinopec is the worlds fifth biggest company by revenue.
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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 Austrian plastics recycler Ecoplast Kunststoffrecycling GmbH (“Ecoplast”), as per the company's press-release.

Based in Wildon, Austria, Ecoplast processes around 35,000 tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste from households and industrial consumers every year, turning them into high-quality LDPE and HDPE recyclates, primarily but not exclusively for the plastic film market.

The expectation of Borealis is that the recycled PO market will grow substantially by 2021, which is the strategic rationale behind the acquisition. The company has made PO recycling a key element of its overall PO strategy because of its potential to support both growth and sustainability. Borealis has been an industry frontrunner in making polyolefins more circular. In 2014, it began offering high-end compound solutions to the automotive industry, consisting of 25% and 50% post-consumer recycled content. Borealis was also the first virgin PO producer to explore the possibilities of mechanical recycling, by acquiring one of Europe's largest producers of post-consumer polyolefin recyclates - mtm plastics GmbH and mtm compact GmbH – in July 2016. Since then it has continued to invest into the development of technology and new products in the area of circular polyolefins.

"Borealis recognises the increasing need for plastic recycling and sees the Circular Economy as a business opportunity. Borealis already has a long-term collaboration with Ecoplast and this acquisition is the next logical step in building our mechanical recycling capabilities. As an important complement to mtm in Germany, Ecoplast will help us address critical sustainability challenges and become a polyolefin recycling leader. Eventually, we want to use our experience to develop an effective blueprint for the end-of-use phases for plastics that can be applied in other parts of the world," says Borealis Chief Executive Alfred Stern.

"We are very happy that the transaction with a strong and reliable partner such as Borealis has been successfully concluded and are looking forward to our common future activities on the recycling market. We have located potential synergies in many operative and strategic areas, especially in product quality R&D and future applications of polyethylene-film-recyclates. The combination of Ecoplast and Borealis holds the potential to be groundbreaking for the market," says Ecoplast’s Managing Director Lukas Intemann.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Motiva Enterprises returned the gasoline-producing, alkylation and small coking units to normal operation at its 603,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, the nation’s largest, on Monday, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

Motiva’s media relations office declined to comment.

The 82,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU 3) and the 18,000-bpd alkylation units were knocked out of production on Sunday by a malfunction, the sources said. The units began restarting on Sunday night.

A control valve on the 54,000-bpd coker malfunctioned early on Monday but the unit did not shut down, the sources said. The coker is the smaller of two at the refinery.

FCCUs use a catalyst under high heat and pressure to convert gas oil to gasoline.

Alkylation units convert refining by-products into octane-boosting components of gasoline.

Cokers convert residual crude oil into feedstock for motor fuels and petroleum coke, a coal substitute.

As MRC informed before, in mid-July 2018, Motiva Enterprises completed repairs to the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at its 603,000 barrel per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas.

Motiva is a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Xinjiang Mining Co has restarted its low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on August 28, 2018. The plant was shut for maintenance on August 4, 2018.

Located at Xinjiang in China, the plant has a LDPE production capacity of 270,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, in late July, 2017, Shenhua Xinjiang Mining Co took off-stream its LDPE plant at Xinjiang owing to technical issues. The unplanned outage at the unit remained in force until August 10, 2017.
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