Shell uses plastic waste to produce chemicals

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell announced it has successfully made high-end chemicals using a liquid feedstock made from plastic waste, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The technique, known as pyrolysis, is considered a breakthrough for hard-to-recycle plastics and advances Shell's ambition to use one million tons of plastic waste a year in its global chemicals plants by 2025.

"This makes sense for the environment and our business," said Thomas Casparie, Executive Vice President of Shell's global chemicals business. "We want to take waste plastics that are tough to recycle by traditional methods and turn them back into chemicals – creating a circle. These chemicals will meet our customers' growing demands for high quality and sustainable products."

Atlanta-based Nexus Fuels LLC recently supplied its first cargo of pyrolysis liquid to Shell's chemical plant in Norco, Louisiana, USA where it was made into chemicals that are the raw materials for everyday items. Shell is working with multiple companies who collect and transform plastic waste in order to scale this solution to industrial and profitable quantities across its chemicals plants – in Asia, Europe and North America.

Shell is a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW). This not-for-profit organization is bringing together top minds from across the plastics value chain (chemical and plastic manufacturers, consumer goods companies, retailers, converters and waste management companies) and partnering with the financial community, governments and civil society. The AEPW has committed USD1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment.

Shell is also working with its retail, business fuels and lubricants customers to help reduce, reuse and recycle plastic packaging.

As MRC wrote before, in mid-October 2019, Royal Dutch Shell Plc restarted the hydrocracker at its 225,300 barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery. The 40,000 bpd hydrocracker was shut on Sept. 9 for a planned month-long overhaul. A longer than expected restart of the unit stretched the outage to six weeks, the sources said.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's output of chemical products rose in October 2019 by 5.4% month on month.
However, production of basic chemicals increased by 3.9% in the first ten months of 2019, according to Rosstat's data.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, the largest increase in production volumes on an annualized basis accounted for mineral fertilizers and polymers in primary form. Thus, 210 ,000 tonnes of ethylene were produced in October, compared to 200,000 tonnes a month earlier. Limited production was a result of scheduled shutdowns of several large producers in September-October.

Thus, 2,466,000 tonnes of this olefin were produced in January-October 2019, up by 0.9% year on year. October production of benzene was 123,000 tonnes, compared to 108,000 tonnes a month earlier.

Overall output of this product reached 1,199,000 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 2.9% year on year.
October production of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) were 111,000 tonnes (100% of the basic substance), which equalled the September figure. Overall output of caustic soda totalled 1,071,900 tonnes over the stated period, compared to 1,055,500 tonnes a year earlier.

1,911,000 tonnes of mineral fertilizers (in terms of 100% nutrients) were produced in October versus 1,927 mln tonnes a month earlier. Overall, Russian plants produced 20,091,000 tonnes of fertilizers in January-October 2019, up by 4.8% year on year.

Last month's production of polymers in primary form decreased to 704,000 tonnes, up 5.2% from September due to scheduled maintenance works of several PE and PP producers. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 7,042,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 4.1% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Maoming Petrochemical, part of Sinopec, has planned to be taken off-stream its Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) plant in Guangdong, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is likely to halt operations at the plant for maintenance on November 27, 2019. The plant is likely to remain off-line for about one week.

Located at Guangdong in China, the MTBE plant has a production capacity of 80,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec Maoming has planned to take off-stream its No. 2 PP unit for a maintenance turnaround. A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is likely to halt operations at the PP unit over the priod of May-June 2020. The unit is expected to remain off-line from May 5 to June 13, 2020. Located in Guangdong, China, the No. 2 PP unit has a capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Next Wave Energy Partners (Houston, Texas) has decided to go forward with plans to build an ethylene-based alkylate plant in Pasadena, Texas, on the Houston Ship Channel, with completion slated for mid-2022, reported Chemweek.

The facility will have capacity to produce 28,000 bbl/day of alkylate, a gasoline blending component, while consuming over 1.2 billion lbs/year (540,000 metric tons/year) of ethylene feedstock, says New Wave.

"By starting with a chemically pure feedstock and thereby avoiding the feedstock constraints typically found in refinery alkylation, our facility will produce one of the highest-quality alkylate products available in North America, which is particularly attractive for blending the cleaner-burning gasoline required by the high performance engines of today and tomorrow," says Patrick Diamond, executive chairman of New Wave.

New Wave says the Pasadena facility has been designed for expansion. "Working with potential suppliers and offtake partners, we have already commenced engineering for a second alkylation unit at our Pasadena site to capitalize on incremental demand for our services," says Michael Bloesch, president and CEO. "We believe our premier location near the Houston Ship Channel offers our customers unsurpassed connectivity to feedstock supply, product offtake and gasoline blending and distribution infrastructure."

Alkylate from the facility will be delivered by direct-connection pipeline to Pasadena blending terminals with dock access to the Houston Ship Channel and connections to major refined product distribution pipelines, says Next Wave.

Ethylene is also a feedstock for the production of polyethylene (PE).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in March 2019, Bayport Polymers LLC (Baystar), the 50/50 joint venture owned by Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA, Inc. (TPRI) and Novealis Holdings LLC - itself a joint venture co-owned by Borealis AG and NOVA Chemicals Inc. - held its official groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new 625,000 metric ton-per-year Borstar polyethylene unit at its production site in Pasadena, Texas, with an anticipated start-up in 2021.
MRC

September imports of material into Belarus decreased by 24% and amounted to 1,300 tonnes compared to 1,700 tonnes in September last year, in August of the current supply amounted to 1,500 tonnes.

The share of imports from Russia to the Republic of Belarus also decreased in September and amounted to 92% against 97% in the same month last year.

MRC