NRL to use Honeywell UOP technology for production of cleaner-burning diesel fuel

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), a public sector undertaking under the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, will use UOP technology to produce cleaner-burning diesel fuel in compliance with India’s BS-VI emission standards and increase crude oil conversion, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project (NREP) will facilitate economic development in the north-eastern states of India by expanding the region’s crude processing capacity from the present 3.0 million metric tons per year (MMtpy) to 9.0 MMtpy in Numaligarh, located in the Indian state of Assam.

The UOP Distillate Unionfining process will enable NRL to produce diesel that complies with India’s BS-VI emission standards, which were implemented last year. The process removes impurities to improve the quality of middle distillate feedstocks that meet increasingly stringent regulations for fuels such as diesel.

“This project with Numaligarh marks the first-ever UOP licensed process unit in an NRL refinery, and it’s the first grassroots diesel hydrotreating unit in India using a latest-generation UOP catalyst,” said Mike Banach, Managing Director, UOP India. “The Unionfining technology will help NRL increase crude processing capacity and comply with ever-stricter standards for diesel production.”

The NREP expansion is part of the Government of India’s Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for the northeast Indian states. It also is integrated with a new crude oil pipeline from Paradip in Odisha to Numaligarh in Assam, and a product pipeline from Numaligarh to Siliguri in West Bengal where NRL has its own marketing terminal for product distribution.

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2021, Honeywell announced that Hengli Petrochemical Co. Ltd. successfully used Callidus burner technology from Honeywell UOP to minimize nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions in China, and reduce the impact of these emissions while ensuring safe and stable operations.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

U.S. crude oil production will decline more significantly in 2021 than forecast

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. crude oil production is expected to fall by 290,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.02 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, a steeper decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 270,000 bpd, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

U.S. oil producers have been gradually increasing drilling activity as oil prices have rebounded but output growth has been muted as investors pressure companies to rein in spending and focus on returns. In 2022, output is expected to rise by 820,000 bpd to 11.84 million bpd, unchanged from the EIA's estimate last month.

"Because the average price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil remains above USD55 per barrel in our forecast, we expect producers will drill and complete enough wells in the coming months to offset declines at existing wells," the agency said in a monthly forecast.

The EIA said it expects U.S. petroleum and other liquid fuel consumption to rise 1.39 million bpd to 19.51 million bpd in 2021, compared with a previous forecast for a rise of 1.32 million bpd. The agency expects that gasoline consumption in the United States will average almost 9 million bpd this summer, between April and September, which is 1.2 million bpd more than last summer but almost 600,000 bpd less than summer of 2019.

For 2022, U.S. consumption is forecast to rise 1.02 million bpd to 20.53 million bpd, higher than its previous estimate for an increase of 980,000 bpd.

We remind that Marathon Petroleum, the largest US refiner, can meet its supply commitments for now but is working to find alternative ways to ship motor fuels to the eastern United States if the Colonial Pipeline shutdown is extended.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

Technip Energies signs first ethanol-to-ethylene catalyst supply agreement for US biorefinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technip Energies has signed its first catalyst supply agreement with LanzaJet Inc. (LanzaJet), a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producer, for its proprietary Hummingbird ethanol-to-ethylene catalyst, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

LanzaJet’s SAF delivers more than 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on a lifecycle basis, compared to conventional fossil jet fuel. The catalyst will be used in LanzaJet’s first commercial demonstration scale integrated biorefinery at its Freedom Pines Fuels site in Soperton, Georgia, USA.

Technip Energies was awarded its first commercial License for the Hummingbird Ethanol-to-Ethylene technology by LanzaTech in 2019, founder and investor in LanzaJet.

Hummingbird is a second generation, low-cost process for dehydrating ethanol to produce ethylene. It gives ethylene derivative producers an option to produce ‘niche’ renewable products from sustainable bioethanol sources. A key feature of Hummingbird is its proprietary catalyst operating at a lower temperature, higher pressure and producing a polymer grade ethylene with over 99% selectivity.

As MRC informed before, Technip Energies has also provided the proprietary technology and process design for Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Chemical Co. Ltd.’s (Hengli) mega 1,500 kta(1) liquid ethylene plant in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China. The plant successfully started up at the beginning of 2020 to reach its capacity shortly after the start-up, and despite COVID-19 context, passed all performance guarantees and the final acceptance test in the fourth quarter.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

BASF expands PGM refining capacity in the USA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's largest petrochemical compnay, has announced the expansion of its Seneca, South Carolina, USA, Platinum Group Metals (PGM) refining facility, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company will invest double-digit millions in capital improvements to increase refining capacity to recycle precious metals from spent catalysts such as automotive catalytic converters. Recycled metal has as much as 90% lower CO2 emissions than metal from primary mines. By recovering the precious metals for reuse in fresh catalysts BASF closes the loop with circular economy solutions.

“This investment further strengthens our global leadership position in the spent automotive catalyst recycling market,” said Tim Ingle, Vice President, BASF Precious Metals Refining, Chemicals & Battery Recycling. “We are proud to enable the circular economy and to support our customers’, and our own, sustainability goals.”

BASF’s Seneca site produces precious metal catalysts and chemicals that are used by BASF customers to produce a wide variety of products, including herbicides, plastics, pharmaceuticals, automotive emission catalysts, fragrances and fertilizers.

As MRC reported earlier, in April 2020, Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and BASF announced the intention to expand their businesses with the production of styrene monomer (SM) based on circular feedstock.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

Worley wins contract for fuel production project in Sweden

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Worley has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) services contract for a power-to-fuel project in Sweden, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Liquid Wind plans to build its first commercial scale eMethanol facility in Ornskoldsvik, northern Sweden. The facility is expected to produce 50,000 tons of renewable methanol every year. The feedstock for the facility will use biogenic carbon dioxide from a biomass-fired power plant and combine it with green hydrogen, made from renewable electricity and water, to produce eMethanol.

This provides an alternative to fossil fuels and a potential pathway to reduce carbon emissions by over 90 per cent in marine transportation. eMethanol can also be used as a building block in the production of other sustainable chemicals. These include acetic acid, formaldehyde and olefins. This synthetic methanol can contribute to the decarbonization of industries such as adhesives, solvents and plastics.

Worley will provide FEED services, including the project’s cost estimate. These will be executed by Worley’s Sweden and UK offices with support from its Global Integrated Delivery team. Liquid Wind plans to build 500 facilities by 2050. The focus will be on designing operations for scalability through intelligent replication of facilities, to reach the scale needed to reduce carbon emissions significantly. Worley will make this possible through a standardized design concept that can be replicated and utilized in Liquid Wind’s future developments.

"Worley has extensive, relevant experience and we are confident it will be a valuable partner in developing standardized and replicable eMethanol facilities,” said Claes Fredriksson, CEO and Founder at Liquid Wind. “Its experience with a modular approach will support in keeping costs down and increasing our speed to market. As well as enabling the rapid replication of facilities, which is needed to meet the growing demand for carbon-neutral liquid fuel”.

"Synthetic fuels will play a significant role in the future of transportation and in the decarbonization of several other industries,” said Bradley Andrews, President at Worley. "We are committed to delivering a more sustainable world and we look forward to helping Liquid Wind achieve its sustainability goals and ambitions to bring renewable methanol to market at scale."

As per MRC, WorleyParsons has been awarded a new three-year contract by NOVA Chemicals for continued engineering on the Corunna Cracker Expansion Project (Phase 3) in Ontario Canada. This award follows WorleyParsons successful completion of services to Phase 2 of the Project. Under the new contract, WorleyParsons will provide engineering, procurement, construction management and project management services.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

MRC