Shell to restart Deer Park, Texas reformer this week

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to restart this week units shut in September for a planned overhaul at its 302,800 barrel-per-day (bpd) joint-venture Deer Park, Texas, refinery, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

Fuel-gas treating units have restarted and work is being completed on the 45,900 bpd reformer and an aromatics unit, the sources said.

A Shell spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Shell is preparing to transfer control of the refinery to its joint-venture partner Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico’s national oil company, by the end of the year for USD596 million in cash and debt plus the value of inventory on-hand.

Shell and Pemex announced the sale of Shell’s interest in May. Shell has sold all but two of its refineries as part of a plan to depart US refining.

Shell’s Norco, Louisiana, refinery is restarting following repairs of damage from Hurricane Ida, which struck at the end of August.

As MRC informed earlier, Royal Dutch Shell plans to reduce its refining and chemicals portfolio by more than half, it said in July 2020 without giving a precise timeframe. The move is part of the Anglo-Dutch company's plan to shrink its oil and gas business and expand its renewables and power division to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sharply by 2050.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) –- As of November 2021, Ekornes, a Norwegian manufacturer of high-end design furniture, uses expandable polystyrene (EPS) protective packaging that has a lower carbon footprint than virgin material by safeguarding the same properties. This is achieved by replacing fossil resources with recycled raw materials at the beginning of production. BASF supplies Styropor Ccycled to VARTDAL PLAST, who converts the material into moulded packaging parts for Stressless furniture made by Ekornes, as per BASF's press release.

“We are really proud to be the first company to launch this project together with VARTDAL PLAST and BASF with regards to design furniture. We always strive to have the best packaging solution to protect our quality furniture, and Styropor Ccycled offers exactly what we want: same properties as virgin material but at the same time meeting the needs to reduce our carbon footprint, a perfect fit into our sustainability strategy,” says Solveig Gaundal, Compliance and CSR Manager at Ekornes.

Due to its manufacturing process, Styropor Ccycled has the same properties as conventional Styropor. This maintains the excellent packaging properties such as outstanding impact absorption and high compressive strength, which are essential for the protection of sophisticated design furniture. In the production of the packaging foams that have become so well-known over the last 70 years, pyrolysis oil replaces fossil raw materials. BASF sources this oil from technology partners who use a thermochemical process called pyrolysis to transform post-consumer plastic waste that would otherwise be used for energy recovery or go to landfill into this secondary raw material. BASF then uses the oil at the very beginning of the value chain to manufacture new plastics and other products.

Since recycled and fossil raw materials are mixed in production and cannot be distinguished from each other, the recycled portion is allocated to Styropor Ccycled using a mass balance approach. Both the allocation process and the product itself, have been certified by an independent auditor. Compared with conventional Styropor, at least 50% of CO2 is saved in the production of Styropor Ccycled.

Also, for the converter VARTDAL PLAST Styropor Ccycled brings a lot of advantages as the product is identical to virgin material. Therefore, the production process does not have to be adjusted. The company and their products are certified according to the ecoloop certification programme, confirming that for the products 100% recycled material was used as feedstock. “We are thrilled to be working together with BASF and Ekornes on this project. This is a testament of our mutual commitment towards a more sustainable future,” says Mounir El'Mourabit, product manager at VARTDAL PLAST.

As MRC reported earlier, BASF is strengthening its global catalyst development and helping customers to bring new products faster to the market. As part of this strategy, BASF is building a new pilot plant center at its Ludwigshafen site. The new Catalyst Dv'elopment and Solids Processing Center will serve as a global hub for pilot-scale production and process innovations of chemical catalysts. The new building is scheduled for completion by mid-2024.

We remind that BASF aims is to electrify its production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.

According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, the total estimated EPS consumption in Russia grew in August 2021 by 15% year on year to 11,650 tonnes. Russia's overall EPS production totalled 8,770 tonnes over the stated month, down by 8% year on year.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ALPLA has made production at three of its facilities climate neutral, said the company.

The sites in Exter, Lubeck and Foritztal in Germany have all been made climate neutral in accordance with Scopes 1 and 2 using carbon certificates. The project began earlier this year with the aim of reducing carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, and the first step was to convert to green electricity.

This move reduced emissions from around 22,000 tonnes of CO2e emitted in 2020 to just under 2,000 tonnes of Scopes 1 and 2 CO2e emitted in 2021, the equivalent of running 4,400 passenger vehicles a year. In order to offset the remaining 2,000 tonnes of CO2e emitted, carbon certificates were purchased to make the plants carbon neutral in accordance with Scopes 1 and 2.

A further 500 tonnes of CO2e were voluntarily offset through a reforestation programme, supporting damaged areas and preservation of the forest in Bosingfeld, around 30km from the Exter plant, covering an area of 1.25 hectares.

As MRC informed earlier, ALPLA will build a new 23,000 square-metre manufacturing plant in Kansas City, Missouri. ALPLA Group, a global packaging solutions manufacturer and recycling specialist headquartered in Hard, Austria, announced that it has selected the Kansas City region for its new 23,000-square-metre manufacturing plant.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,638,370 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

ALPLA , with about 21,600 employees, produces custom-made packaging systems, bottles, caps and moulded parts at 178 sites across 45 countries. It also operates recycling plants for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high density polyethylene (HDPE).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rejected so far one petition from an oil refiner to be exempted from the nation's biofuel blending laws for the 2019 compliance yr, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The move comes at a time when the oil and biofuel industries await an indication from the Biden administration on how it will approach blending requirements under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Though the EPA, which administers the RFS, rejected the one petition from 2019, it still has to decide on 32 pending petitions for that yr.

Under the RFS, oil refiners must blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation's fuel mix, or buy tradable credits from those that do. Refiners can request a waiver from the EPA that would exempt them from those requirements if they can prove the obligations would do them financial harm.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the EPA delayed a decision on blending requirements for 2021, and a finalized rule has been late by nearly a yr. The deadline for 2022 requirements is the end of this mos.

The oil industry and the biofuels industry have been at odds over the regulations for yr. The biofuels industry says the exemptions hurt demand for their products, while independent refiners reject that claim and say that exemptions are needed for smaller refineries to stay afloat.

Aside from the 2019 compliance yr, EPA's website shows that there are 28 pending petitions for 2020 and three pending petitions for 2021. The EPA was to decide on a petition from United Refining Co by Friday, after the company filed a lawsuit against EPA administration for the delay in deciding on the company's 2019 exemption petition. United Refining did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As per MRC, US Environmental Protection Agency would propose to extend deadlines for refiners to prove compliance with biofuel laws, but signaled it would not decide on a slew of pending waiver requests submitted by the industry. The agency’s proposal represented mixed news for refiners hard hit by slumping energy demand during the coronavirus pandemic and eager to sidestep regulatory costs associated with US biofuel blending policy. It also marks one of the last actions from President Donald Trump’s EPA before he leaves office on Jan. 20.

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 1,638,370 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Radici will build a new plant in China to increase production capacity, and will sell products in Australia, said the company.

RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers, through its company in China, Radici Plastics Suzhou Co, has signed an agreement with Duromer for the distribution of its products in Australia.

“We have collaborated with Duromer for some years now,” Alberto Sessolo, general manager of Radici Plastics Suzhou, pointed out. “We have worked well together and have built a relationship of great trust, which we have agreed to expand and make more synergistic. That's why we are entrusting Duromer with the distribution of our materials in the Australian territory. We are confident of their leadership in that market and aware that, together, we will work well as a team to serve strategic sectors such as automotive, E&E, consumer goods and industrial goods".

RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers, which is building a new plant in China to increase its production capacity, now has an expert partner to promote and sell its products in Australia.

"We are very pleased to continue our relationship with RadiciGroup,” said Andrew Stewart, general manager of Duromer. “And we are happy to share our long-standing knowledge of the Australian polymers market, as we are very familiar with the quality of RadiciGroup products and the professionalism of the people we deal with."

As MRC informed earlier, RadiciGroup is investing more than EUR35m to strengthen its global engineering polymer business with new plants in Mexico and China, as well as a capacity expansion in Europe. In China, work has begun on a new 25,000-square metre plant that will boost production capacity by 30,000 tonnes/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,638,370 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers is a multinational organization with the capacity to manufacture and supply engineering polymers (based on polyamide, polyester and other materials) around the globe, with the backing of a production and sales network across all continents, as well as research and development increasingly focused on high-performance polymers.
MRC