Linde signs long-term agreement with Infineon Technologies to supply green hydrogen to semiconductor industry

Linde signs long-term agreement with Infineon Technologies to supply green hydrogen to semiconductor industry

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Linde has announced it has signed a long-term agreement with Infineon Technologies for the on-site production and storage of high-purity green hydrogen, alongside the supply of other industrial gases. It will be the first time green hydrogen is used in Infineon's semiconductor manufacturing process, as per the company's press release.

Linde will build, own and operate a two-megawatt electrolyzer plant at Infineon's Villach site in Austria. The plant will produce green hydrogen using Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) technology from ITM Power, which Linde will then purify to meet the rigorous specifications needed in Infineon's manufacturing process. The use of this high-purity green hydrogen is part of Infineon's plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at theirVillach site.

Linde will also build, own and operate a compact air separation unit at the Villach site to deliver a reliable supply of nitrogen in addition to a bulk storage system to supply additional industrial gases to meet Infineon's expanding requirements. The new Linde facilities are expected to start up in 2022.

"Finding sustainable methods of manufacturing is essential to achieving our climate targets," said Thomas Reisinger, Board Member Operations at Infineon Technologies Austria. "By introducing an electrolysis system at the Infineon Villach site, we are equipping ourselves for the future by securing the essential supply of high-purity hydrogen while reducing our emissions."

"We are proud to work with Infineon to pioneer the use of green hydrogen in the semiconductor industry," said Veerle Slenders, President Region Europe West, Linde. "Linde has supplied Infineon for over 20 years and we are pleased to support our customer's sustainability initiatives through the use of technology and smart solutions."

As MRC reported earlier, in JUne 2021, SIBUR -Neftekhim and Linde Gas Rus signed agreements on implementation in 2021-2022. a project for the utilization of carbon dioxide (CO2) generated in the technological process of the SIBUR enterprise in Dzerzhinsk. SIBUR -Neftekhim will build an infrastructure for the transportation to the Linde Gas Rus site of crude CO2 obtained as a by-product in the process of ethylene oxide synthesis. In turn, Linde Gas Rus will build a unit to bring the quality of this gas to the level of a commercial product, applicable, among other things, in the food industry, and will sell it to end consumers.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2020 sales of USD27 billion (EUR24 billion). The company serves a variety of end markets including chemicals & refining, food & beverage, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing and primary metals. Linde's industrial gases are used in countless applications, from life-saving oxygen for hospitals to high-purity & specialty gases for electronics manufacturing, hydrogen for clean fuels and much more. Linde also delivers state-of-the-art gas processing solutions to support customer expansion, efficiency improvements and emissions reductions.
MRC

Chevron invests in waste-to-hydrogen and renewable synthetic fuel startup in northen California

Chevron invests in waste-to-hydrogen and renewable synthetic fuel startup in northen California

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron and other partners said they are investing in a startup to build modular waste-to-green hydrogen and renewable synthetic fuel facilities in northern California with tentative plans to eventually grow worldwide, reported S&P Global.

The USD20 million investment in Wyoming-based Raven SR is focused on technology to develop combustion-free, green hydrogen for transportation that is cleaner than so-called blue hydrogen derived from natural gas.

Unlike alternative approaches to waste disposal, such as incineration or gasification, Raven touts a steam and carbon dioxide reformation process that does not involve any combustion, purportedly reducing emissions and producing more green hydrogen per ton of waste than competing processes.

The goal also is to utilize the technology to produce more synthetic liquid fuels, including diesel and jet fuel, as well as other additives and solvents, such as naphtha, and even some electricity via microturbines. Further decarbonizing the production of jet fuel is a key goal, Raven said, to help combat climate change.

Other project partners include New York-based Hyzon Motors, Japan's Itochu Corp. and the Ascent Hydrogen Fund. Hyzon, which focuses on hydrogen fuel cell-powered commercial vehicles, and Raven plan to build up to 250 hydrogen production facilities worldwide.

But the first facilities with Chevron and the partners will be in the San Francisco area.

As MRC wrote previously, ExxonMobil, along with Chevron, is seeking to bulk up in the burgeoning renewable fuels space by finding ways to make such products at existing facilities. The two largest US oil companies want to produce sustainable fuels without ponying up billions of dollars that some refineries are spending to reconfigure operations to make such products. Renewable fuels account for 5% of US fuel consumption, but are poised to grow as various sectors adapt to cut overall carbon emissions to combat global climate change.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 19.08.2021

1. South Korean and Chinese refiners snap up US Mars crude loading in September

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korean and Chinese refiners have snapped up at least 5 million barrels of US Mars crude loading in September, taking advantage of lower prices in recent weeks, reported Reuters with reference to industry sources. The purchases could lift in September the volume of US crude loading for Asia, up from a 4-year low in the previous month when strong US crude prices curbed exports, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. Other grades such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and West Texas Light (WTL) that regularly head east are also being booked for Asia, the sources said.


MRC

Crude oil futures in Asia continue their downward trend amid US gasoline stock build, poor demand outlook

Crude oil futures in Asia continue their downward trend amid US gasoline stock build, poor demand outlook

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures extended losses sustained overnight during mid-morning Asian trade Aug. 19, as concerns over the slowdown in oil demand intensified after US data showed a build in US gasoline stockpiles, while investors remained spooked by the delta variant spread, reported S&P Global.

At 10:32 am Singapore time (0232 GMT), the ICE October Brent futures contract was down USD1.03/b (1.51%) from the previous close at USD67.18/b, while the NYMEX September light sweet crude contract fell USD1.07/b (1.63%) at USD64.39/b.

Total US gasoline inventories climbed 700,000 barrels to 228.17 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 13, the Energy Information Administration data released late Aug. 18 showed, snapping four consecutive weekly draws and narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to around 3%.

The build ran counter to market expectations. American Petroleum Institute data released late Aug. 17 showed US gasoline stocks down 1.2 million barrels, while analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts on Aug. 16 had called for a 2.3 million-barrel decline over the period.

Coming at the tail end of the peak driving season, the news sent both oil benchmarks slumping 1.1%-1.7% overnight. Reports of a 3.23 million-barrel draw in US commercial crude inventories over the same period to 435.54 million barrels did little to offset investor pessimism.

"It appears that the only modestly bearish data point from yesterday's report was that gasoline inventories increased by 696,000 barrels due to a slight decline in implied demand," ING analysts Warren Patterson and Wenyu Yao said.

"Given yesterday's price action, the market is clearly more focused on the global demand outlook than EIA weekly numbers," they added.

COVID-19 case numbers in the US remained stubbornly high despite the government's ongoing vaccination drive. The country recorded 141,893 new cases as of Aug. 17, most recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed, while the seven-day moving average stood at 130,121 cases.

Nonetheless, ING's Patterson and Yao noted that one bright spot for the supply outlook was the increasingly unlikely return of Iranian oil in the near term, given the lack of progress in nuclear talks.

As MRC informed earlier, crude oil stockpiles fell modestly last week, while gasoline inventories dipped to their lowest level since November, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Crude inventories fell by 447,000 barrels in the week to Aug. 6 to 438.8 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel drop. Overall crude inventories have been on the decline for several weeks due to increased demand.

We remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

July exports of diesel hit 10-month low in China as refiners run out of export quotas

July exports of diesel hit 10-month low in China as refiners run out of export quotas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's diesel exports in July plunged 41% from a month ago as refiners neared the end of the first batch of 2021 refined fuel export quotas, while a drop-off in domestic fuel supplies encouraged refiners to prioritise local demand, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Diesel shipments were 1.39 million tonnes last month, hitting the lowest level since September 2020, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Wednesday. That was down from 2.36 million tonnes in June but still well above 550,000 tonnes in July last year.

Gasoline exports in July also plunged 49% from a month earlier to only 740,000 tonnes, the lowest point in 14 months. Jet kerosene exports were 660,000 tonnes in July.

China granted 29.5 million tonnes of refined fuel products export quotas in the first batch for 2021. In the first six months, the country sold 26.29 million tonnes of diesel, gasoline and jet kerosene to overseas market.

Meanwhile, Beijing from mid-June imposed hefty taxes on imports of light cycle oil (LCO), mixed aromatics and diluted bitumen, aiming to curb imports it blames for worsening a fuel surplus and polluting the environment.

China's daily crude throughput last month fell to the lowest since May 2020. Last week, China slashed export quotas for refined fuels for the second batch of quotas issued for 2021 by 73% year-on-year to 7.5 million tonnes, pointing to low fuel exports in coming months.

The customs data on Wednesday also showed China's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in July were 5.67 million tonnes, up 14% from a year earlier, buoyed by increasing demand from industrial and power generation sectors.

As per MRC, China's daily crude throughput last month fell to the lowest since May 2020 as independent plants slashed production amid a tighter quotas, high inventories and weakening profits. Last month's processing volumes were 59.06 million tonnes, or 13.9 million barrels per day (bpd), 0.9% below the same month of 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday. That was the first year-on-year decline since March last year when coronavirus hammered Chinese fuel demand, and the July level was down 6% from off June's record at 14.8 million bpd.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC