McDonalds is teaming up with Ford to recycle coffee residue into car parts

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ford is looking to partner with McDonald's to recycle coffee chaff, the husk of coffee beans that peels off during roasting, said Businessinsider.

"By heating the chaff to high temperatures under low oxygen, mixing it with plastic and other additives and turning it into pellets, the material can be formed into various shapes," Ford told The Verge.

To start with, the chaff will be recycled and molded into headlamp housings for Ford products, which will produce lighter components and, in turn, improve the cars' efficiency. Both companies want to carry on collaborating with one another for a more sustainable future.

It might sound ambitious but, at Ford, the idea of using coffee to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars is no laughing matter.

The American car manufacturer is planning to partner with McDonald's to recycle coffee chaff — the husk of coffee beans that peels off during roasting — and mold the residue into headlamp housings.

"By heating the chaff to high temperatures under low oxygen, mixing it with plastic and other additives and turning it into pellets, the material can be formed into various shapes," the manufacturer told The Verge.

Once heated, mixed with other components, and converted to bioplastic, the residue will allow car manufacturers in producing components that are 20% lighter.

Though the weight reduction might not seem significant, it will improve the energy efficiency of vehicles and in turn reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Ford's interest in recycled materials isn't actually anything new; founder Henry Ford, was already using soybean-based products by the early 1940s.

Since 2011, soy foam has also been used by the company in manufacturing some of its products' interiors.

Though electric vehicle sales continue to grow across the globe, a Greenpeace report indicates that the automotive industry's global carbon footprint still contributed to 9% of the world's CO2 emissions in 2018.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nestle has pledged to use recycled plastic (rPET) in the bottle production for Buxton Natural Mineral Water brand, said Packaging-gateway.

The complete range will be recyclable and made from 100% rPET by 2021, which will contribute to a circular economy. Last month, the company launched 100% rPET bottles in the 75cl and 1l ranges, while the rest currently contain at least 20% rPET content.

The initiative will significantly reduce the amount of virgin plastic in circulation.

Nestle Waters UK business executive officer Michel Beneventi said: "We are incredibly excited to be able to put our commitments to sustainability into practice. The high-quality recycled material retains the same all-important properties as PET, resulting in a product that is lightweight, durable, resilient and still 100% recyclable.

"We would have liked to have made all our Buxton bottles from recycled material much sooner but there are many challenges to achieving this. The material we use needs to be high-quality food grade."

Currently, the company relies on the supply of rPET material for the Buxton bottles from outside the UK. At the moment, the UK does not have the required infrastructure to produce the material in huge quantities.

Beneventi added: "We would love to be able to produce the bottles for our British water in the UK. Therefore, we are working with industry partners, non-governmental organisations and government to improve the national recycling rate, supporting the UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme and engaging with consumers about their recycling to help make a circular economy for plastics a reality."

Nestle has pledged to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption dropped in September 2019 by 10% year on year, totalling 58,210 tonnes. Overall, 551,320 tonnes of PET was processed in Russia in the first nine months of 2019, up 9% year on year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- EPIC Midstream loaded its first oil tanker at its new Texas export terminal and plans to open another dock in the third quarter of 2020, benefiting from rising demand for low-sulfur US crude, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to EPIC President Brian Freed said in an interview.

Its Corpus Christi, Texas, facility has capacity to load Aframax tankers, which can carry up to 750,000 barrels of oil, at a rate of 20,000 barrels per hour, boosting export capabilities as refiners in Europe and Asia look for more light sweet crude supply ahead of new maritime fuel standards.

The facility planned for next year would double the company’s total loading rate to 40,000 barrels per hour and could handle larger Suezmax tankers, which can hold about 1 million barrels, Freed told Reuters late Monday.

San Antonio-based EPIC is one of three pipeline operators that have opened major lines this year to bring barrels from the top U.S. oil field to the Gulf Coast, and one of several companies to launch export projects as the shale boom has helped make the nation the world’s largest crude producer and a major exporter.

"A low-sulfur barrel is going to be a very attractive barrel, so demand is strong right now" for crude produced in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, Freed said. "There’s room for a lot of projects to get done."

Shipping rates for Aframax tankers from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Europe this month have remained near the all-time record.

A new maritime law known as IMO 2020 will require ocean-going vessels to burn low-sulfur fuels to reduce pollution beginning Jan. 1. That is expected to benefit U.S. crude exports as shippers take advantage of global demand for lighter grades, which more easily produce lower-sulfur fuels than heavier crude oils.

The Aframax-class tanker Eser K, chartered by Russian energy firm Lukoil, departed on Monday from EPIC’s facility near the site of a former grain terminal, toward Britain, according to shipbrokers and Refinitiv Eikon data. They did not specify the actual size of the cargo.

EPIC has scheduled a second ship, Freed said, but he declined to disclose the vessel. He did confirm the Eser K’s departure from Corpus.

EPIC opened its 400,000 barrel-per-day interim-service pipeline from the Permian Basin to Corpus Christi in August.

It plans to open a 900,000 bpd line early in the first quarter, and will begin offering a second, ultralight crude grade - West Texas Light (WTL) - as it batches shipments on a system expected to have about 7 million barrels of storage capacity, Freed said. That grade of crude has only recently started shipping overseas.

"There’s no reason why WTL shouldn’t be an attractive export," Freed said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- French unions could extend strike action at a number of refineries across the country to fully shut down installations, depending on how Prime Minister Edouard Philippe responds, reported S&P Global with reference to the CGT union's statement Wednesday.

Staff at a number of French refineries continued the strike Wednesday, with many plants operating at minimum throughput, the union and local media reports said.

French labor unions - including the CGT, FO and FSU - last week called on employees in all sectors to take part in industrial action against the government's pension reforms. Philippe was due to give a statement around midday local time Wednesday.

French oil industry group UFIP said Wednesday all refineries are operating, although oil terminals at some sites, including Gonfreville, Grandpuits, Donges and La Mede, are blocked. However supply is not affected from ExxonMobil's and Petroineos' refineries, UFIP said. It said 2.4% of retail stations, out of a total 11,000, have problems with supply.

Employees at Total's Grandpuits and Donges refineries, its La Mede biofuels plant and Petroineos' Lavera refinery have extended the strike with no product deliveries, the CGT source said. While the refineries continue to operate, throughput has been reduced.

Total's Feyzin refinery, which was shut due to a strike in October and November, continues to operate normally and deliver products, as is ExxonMobil's Gravenchon refinery, sources said.

Staff at ExxonMobil's Fos refinery has been joining the strike on and off, with deliveries partly affected.

Some ports and oil terminals remain blocked, with operations and product deliveries disrupted, the union said.

The CGT union on Tuesday called for renewed industrial action on December 12 and 17.

France has stocks of crude oil and oil products sufficient to cover three months' demand, according to local media reports.

As MRC wrote earlier, staff at seven of France's eight refineries joined a general strike Thursday, affecting oil product deliveries. Thus, Total reported difficulties in accessing its terminals at the Gonfreville, Grandpuits, Donges and Feyzin refineries and La Mede biofuels plant Thursday morning. In addition, access had been difficult to the terminals at Portes-les-Valence and Puget-sur-Argens. Total said, with 200 oil terminals in France, supply to its retail stations had not been affected, despite the blockades. At the same time, ExxonMobil, which operates the Gravenchon refinery near Le Havre and the Fos-sur-Mer plant in the south, said Gravenchon had not been hit by the strike, but there had been a minor impact on road traffic due to external blockades around the site.

We also remind that France's Feyzin refinery was in the process of halting units and the steam cracker was running at reduced rates on 9 October, 2019. Local media had reported earlier that the refinery had been halting operations since Monday, 7 October, due to a strike. The company said it regrets the decision by labor unions to call a strike while discussions were ongoing with refinery staff about a planned indefinite closure of a unit due to lower product demand.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras SA is mulling construction of a new lubricant plant that could quadruple its production capacity by 2022, reported Reuters with reference to the company’s refining chief.

Anelise Lara, Petrobras’ refining and natural gas chief, told Reuters the company will invest about USD400 million to build the new plant in the Comperj refinery, raising its lubricant production capacity to 225,00 cubic meters.

The new Comperj plant will use raw materials from another refinery, Reduc, she added. Both refineries, located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, will be linked by a pipeline.

When the Comperj plant is concluded, Petrobras plans to shut down its lubricant production unit at Reduc.

Lara said the new plant will produce more sustainable and high-quality lubricants, also reducing imports.

As MRC informed previously, the chief executive of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro said on Friday he wants to sell the company's stake in petrochemical company Braskem within 12 months, adding that he strongly disagreed with reported plans to delay the sale.

We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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