MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total has formalized a cooperation with car maker Groupe PSA to develop and manufacture electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Europe by setting up a joint venture (JV) called Automotive Cells Co. (ACC), reported Chemweek.
Total subsidiary Saft and PSA unit Opel are joining forces to create large-scale battery plants with a combined capacity of 48 gigawatt-hours (GWh) at Douvrin, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany. Production could start as early as 2023, with an initial capacity of 8 GWh at each site, rising later to 24 GWh each.
The ACC partners eye capturing more than one-tenth of Europe's future EV battery market, which they see growing 15-fold to 400 GWh by 2030, given the EU's drive toward climate-neutrality by 2050 and economic value creation closer to home. At full capacity, the plants would produce batteries for 1 million EVs per year.
Work on developing lithium-ion technologies has started in France, at an R&D center at Bordeaux and a pilot plant at Nersac, according to Total. When first presenting the plan in early 2020, the partners had indicated the pilot facility would determine whether the multibillion-euro investment would go ahead.
The French and German authorities are backing the enterprise with EUR1.3 billion (USD1.5 billion) of state funds, since it won the status of an Important Project of Common European Interest. The entire project requires investments of more than EUR5 billion.
As MRC wrote before, Total SA is waiting for the external power supply to be restored at its 225,500 barrrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery before restarting units, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations. The refinery was shut on Aug. 25 when Hurricane Laura’s forecast was included a possible landfall near Port Arthur.
We remind that in November 2019, Total disclosed that itis evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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