Dow and Shell collaborate on developing e-cracker technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow and Shell say they have teamed up to accelerate the development of technology that can potentially electrify steam crackers, said Chemweek.

The two companies say project teams in Amsterdam and Terneuzen, Netherlands, and in Texas, are collaborating under a joint development agreement on the conceptual design and scaling of “e-cracker” technologies. Current steam crackers rely on fossil fuel combustion to heat their furnaces, making them CO2 intensive, the companies say. “As the energy grid becomes increasingly renewables-led, using renewable electricity to heat steam cracker furnaces could become one of the routes to decarbonize the chemicals industry. The challenge is to develop a technologically and economically feasible solution,” they say. Shell and Dow will first work on proving out process technology innovations in laboratory and pilot operations, and then scale up to commercial crackers.

"Significant technological breakthroughs are needed to reduce our industry’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, which will require companies to step out of their comfort zones and work together to achieve bold and ambitious new goals. Our partnership with Shell is an important step in making this vision a reality,” says Keith Cleason, Dow’s vice president/olefins, aromatics, and alternatives business.

The work "has the potential to contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions from the manufacture of chemicals and to Shell’s ambition of becoming a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner," says Thomas Casparie, executive vice president/global chemicals at Shell.

As MRC informed earlier, in mid-May 2020, USA based Dow Chemical announced plans to shut three polyethylene (PE) plants in the USA and Argentina to avoid piling inventories amid sluggish global demand conditions due to the COVID-19 related lockdown.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cepsa it is carrying out a routine maintenance at one of its two crude units at the San Roque refinery, without specifying which unit, said S&P Global.

The outage would last several days, the company said, without elaborating. The crude 1 unit can process 120,000 boe/d and crude 3 can process 135,000 boe/d, according to company data. The refinery's output has been adjusted to account for lower demand levels in the country due to COVID-19 industrial and travel restrictions.

As MRC informed earlier, Cepsa and Cosmo have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study new business opportunities in the lubricants market, both in Spain and Japan and internationally. The agreement covers potential synergies in the production of lubricants and coolants, the exchange of technology and formulations, and the search for possible partnerships in the marketing of these products, to increase their efficiency. The alliance also reflects both companies' interest in reaching an agreement to manufacture and supply lubricants and coolants on behalf of the other company, under the Cepsa or Cosmo trademark.

As MRC reported before, Cepsa Quimica plans to shut China phenol/acetone plant in 18 June.

Phenol is the main raw material component for the production of bisphenol A (BPA), which, in turn, is used to produce polycarbonate (PC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall estimated consumption of PC granules totalled 12,600 tonnes in the Russian market in January-February 2020 (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus), compared to 9,600 tonnes a year earlier. Demand increased by 31%.

Cepsa is a Spanish petrochemical company. Full name Compania Espanola de Petroleos S.A. The headquarters of the company is located in Madrid. Refining is one of CEPSA's core business areas. The production of asphalt and other road surfaces is another of the company's core business areas; nine CEPSA plants are engaged in the production of these products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belarus' Naftan refinery started unloading first ever barrels of US crude, operator Belneftekhim spokesman Alexander Tishchenko was quoted as saying June 11 by the Belta news agency, said S&P Global.

Register Now "US oil has already begun flowing at Naftan. At noon, we started unloading oil tanks that arrived earlier this morning," Tishchenko said. The 77,000-mt (around 565,000-barrel) cargo of Bakken crude, arrived at the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda on June 5 and is being delivered by rail together with the remaining barrels of Saudi oil purchased by Belarus in late April.

The first delivery contained 17 tank cars of US crude, with the rest arriving at Naftan over the next 10 days, Tishchenko said. This shipment marks the 12th tanker of oil Belarus has purchased in 2020 as the country continues to seek alternative suppliers after a disagreement with Russia on crude supply terms. Belarus has already received similar volumes from Saudi Arabia, Norway, and Azerbaijan.

In total, Belarus has purchased over 1 million mt, or 7.33 million barrels, of oil from alternative suppliers since the beginning of the year. In May, Belarusian refineries also received 1.13 million mt, or 267,190 b/d, of oil from Russia.

The volume necessary for the optimal running of Belarusian refineries is 2 million mt.

As MRC informed earlier, at the Polymir plant, which is part of Naftan, on June 16, two workshops stopped due to a decrease in the supply voltage. As a result of the reduction in ethylene production, the technological process was partially stopped in workshop No. 105 (production of propylene) and in workshop No. 402 (production of polyacrylonitrile fiber). There are no injuries.

According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, Polymir last Monday cut the prices of the 109 and 158 LDPE for shipments to the domestic market to Brb1,772,000-1,876,000/tonnes, excluding VAT, FCA, respectively, for volumes of more than 200 tonnes. Brb1,816,000-1,923,000/tonnes for smaller volumes of prices. rub. per ton, excluding VAT, FCA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish oil and gas company Repsol plans to invest EUR80 million (USD90 million) to build two new plants in the Bilbao area as part of efforts reduce its carbon emissions, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Repsol will build what it said would be one of the world’s biggest net-zero emissions fuel facilities, based on green hydrogen generated with renewable energy and carbon dioxide captured at the Petronor refinery in northern Spain, in which it owns a majority stake.

The second plant will generate gas from urban waste, replacing some of the traditional fuels used by the Petronor refinery, Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz told a news conference on Monday.

“With this project, Repsol becomes a relevant player in reducing carbon emissions,” Imaz said.

Repsol had set a target to reduce its carbon emissions to a net zero by 2050 to contribute to the general struggle to avert global warming.

Companies aiming to achieve “net-zero” usually balance emissions from their operations by investing in technology that can store carbon, or in natural sinks such as forests.

Repsol said it could reach at least 70% of its goal using technology that was already developed or nearly mature, and then would implement carbon capture, use and storage to raise that figure, and turn to natural sinks if necessary.

The first project, fuel production from hydrogen and CO2, announced on Monday will be experimental and produce 50 barrels of synthetic fuel a day, Repsol said. The project will be “scalable in a later stage depending on the results obtained.”

The second project will be able to process 10,000 tons of urban waste a year and capacity could be increased to 100,000 tons a year, or all the urban waste produced in the area.

As MRC reported earlier, Repsol's refinery at Puertollano in central Spain will carry out an upgrade of its olefins unit. The modernization will be a part of planned maintenance of the cracker and chemical derivative plants at the end of 2020.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cash-strapped Sasol (Johannesburg) has received offers from companies including CP Chem, LyondellBasell, and Ineos for a large stake in Sasol’s Lake Charles, Louisiana, petrochemical complex, reported Chemweek with reference to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter.

The companies are among those moving into a second round of bidding for a stake in the nearly completed complex, which could raise more than 29 billion South African rand (USD1.68 billion) for Sasol, according to Bloomberg.

In response to CW’s enquiry, Sasol says that the company does “not comment on ongoing commercially sensitive and/or M&A processes and we do not react to market speculation.” Sasol adds, however, that its expanded asset-disposal process has yielded good interest by strong contenders.

On 12 March 2020, Sasol announced that it was reviewing a variety of actions to address the challenges created by the impact of COVID-19 and the recent decline in the oil and chemical prices. “A package of measures have been developed that are intended to reposition the company over the following 24 months. One of these measures will be our existing asset disposal program… This includes the potential for exploring partnering options at Sasol’s…US-based chemicals business.”

The cost of the Lake Charles complex has sharply risen from early estimates to R192 billion and this, together with falling oil prices, has hurt Sasol’s finances. The Lake Charles complex is based on a 1.54-million metric tons/year ethane cracker, which started production last year. The ethylene will be used in six downstream plants on site to produce ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, ethoxylates, and low-density and linear low-density polyethylene (PE), as well as Ziegler and Guerbet alcohols. About 10% of the ethylene will be surplus to requirement and sold on the merchant market as well as supply Sasol’s share of its high-density PE joint venture (JV) with Ineos in Texas. The 50/50 JV is designed to produce 470,000 metric tons/year.

Sasol recently warned of a loss on the Lake Charles project in 2020. Despite the continuing ramp-up of the project, further price weakness means that the EBITDA contribution from Lake Charles for financial year 2020 has been revised to a loss of USD50–100 million, the company said.

As MRC wrote previously, in mid December 2019, Sasol announced that the LCCP Ethane Cracker was increasing production rates following the successful replacement of the acetylene reactor catalyst. Sasol’s Ethane Cracker with a nameplate capacity of 1.54 million tons per year achieved beneficial operation in August 2019 but has run approximately 50-60% of nameplate capacity due to under performance of the plant’s acetylene removal system. The company stated that the issue had been resolved then.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Sasol is an international integrated chemicals and energy company that leverages technologies and the expertise of our 31 270 people working in 32 countries. The company develops and commercialises technologies, and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of high-value product stream, including liquid fuels, petrochemicals and low-carbon electricity.
MRC