Clariant shows its commitment to decarbonize chemical industry in Oman

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a focused, sustainable, and innovative specialty chemical company, further underlines its commitment to decarbonize the chemical industry and supports the prestigious overall USD3.5 B project to produce green ammonia and green hydrogen in Duqm, Oman, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Clariant will supply KBR with its next-generation AmoMax 10 Plus ammonia synthesis catalyst for the upcoming ACME green ammonia plant of the Oman Company for the Development of the Special Economic Zone at Duqm. Once completed, the plant will be a fully integrated, carbon-neutral facility, using solar and wind energy to produce 300 tons of ammonia per day.

Stefan Heuser, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Business Unit Catalysts at Clariant, commented, “We are convinced that green ammonia will play a crucial role in the global energy transition and with our novel ammonia synthesis catalyst AmoMax 10 Plus, we provide a state-of-the-art product to facilitate this change towards a more sustainable future. Together with our partner KBR we look forward to setting a new standard in a more sustainable and profitable green ammonia production.”

The wustite-based AmoMax 10 Plus is particularly well suited to the requirements of green ammonia production. Based on Clariant’s industry-proven ammonia synthesis catalyst AmoMax 10, this new catalyst is designed with an optimized promoter set, greatly increasing its activity and stability while reducing startup times. The superior activity of AmoMax 10 Plus allows operation with a higher per pass conversion and lower loop pressure. Consequently, it can be used to increase ammonia production and/or to reduce energy consumption. Moreover, the catalyst’s improved stability and excellent resistance to poisons like water and oxygen increase its robustness and lifetime.

These combined features ensure that AmoMax 10 Plus can deliver stable and reliable performance despite fluctuating feed conditions caused by the variable supplies of renewable energy. Overall, green ammonia producers can expect maximum yields with minimum operating expenses.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2020, Clariant announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art catalyst production site in China. This project represents a significant investment which further strengthens Clariant’s position in China and enhances its ability to support its customers in the country’s thriving petrochemicals industry.

The new facility will be primarily responsible for producing the Catofin catalyst for propane dehydrogenation, which is used in the production of olefins such as propylene. Thanks to its excellent reliability and productivity, Catofin delivers superior annual production output compared to alternative technologies, resulting in increased overall profitability for propylene producers, says the company. Construction at the Dushan Port Economic Development Zone in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province was scheduled to commence in Q3 2020, and Clariant expects to be at full production capacity by 2022.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sabic, a global leader in the chemicals industry, announced a new collaboration with Ella’s Kitchen, the UK’s number one baby food brand to create a new cap made from recycled plastic, said Interplasinsights.

Over 3.5 million pouches of Ella’s Kitchen’s Organic Strawberries and Apples pouches will have this new cap and will be on the shelves in UK stores from January 2022. The recycled content for the cap is created using certified circular polymers from Sabic TRUCIRCLE™ portfolio and comes from recycled plastics from post-consumer waste that would otherwise typically be destined for incineration or landfill. Sabic resins are then used by Gualapack, market leader of spouted pouches in the babyfood segment and supplier to Ella’s Kitchen, to produce the cap. Ella’s Kitchen will become the first company in the baby food category to use certified circular polymers from Sabic TRUCIRCLE portfolio.

Abdullah Al-Otaibi, ETP & Market Solution General Manager at Sabic, said: “At Sabic, we are committed to creating sustainable, innovative solutions for our customers which have been produced in a way that optimize our planet’s natural resources and create value out of post-consumer plastics. Using advanced recycling technology we produce materials for high-quality, food-grade packaging which can be upcycled over and over again. This new collaboration with Ella’s Kitchen is beneficial to the eco-system of food packaging, and is another significant step towards a circular economy for used-plastics."

The new collaboration forms part of Ella’s Kitchen’s wider packaging commitments to lower the environmental impact of its packaging and to make all of its packaging widely recyclable by 2024.

As per MRC, Sabic has started up its new polypropylene (PP) compounding line in Genk, Belgium. The new line is an addition to the company’s existing production capacity for Sabic PP compounds at the Genk site, and will use raw materials from Sabic’s PP plants at Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and Geleen, The Netherlands.

As per MRC, Sabic Innovative Plastics, a subsidiary of the largest Saudi petrochemical company - Sabic, on 27 September closed production at its polycarbonate (PC) plant in Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, Indiana, USA) for planned preventive measures. Maintenance at this enterprise with a capacity of 245,000 tonnes of PC per year continued until 11 October.

Sabic is a diversified company manufacturing chemicals, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest state-owned company in Saudi Arabia. Sabic is currently the world's second largest ethylene glycol producer, the third largest polyethylene producer, and the fourth largest polypropylene producer. Sabic cut its 2015 net profit by 7% to SR23.43 billion (Saudi reais), equivalent to USD6.24 billion, amid lower average selling prices and increased sales.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tatneft has decided to terminate the powers of Alexander Anikeev, general director of the Kaliningrad-based Ekopet, the company said in a statement.

"Thanks to our work with you, Ekopet Group of Companies got out of a protracted crisis associated with delivery difficulties, equipment malfunctions, a personnel crisis and conflicts," Anikeev said in a statement.

Anikeev headed Ecopet for the last six years. The reasons why Tatneft decided to replace it are not known.

The name of the new CEO is not specified, it will be presented in the near future. It is scheduled to be announced on January 31st. At the same time, the tasks set for Tatneft to develop high-tech production within the framework of the company's petrochemical strategy were taken into account.

Tatneft acquired the largest enterprise for the production and sale of PET in Russia and Eastern Europe in 2021 - in June it managed to win the auction. Ecopet sold the bank "Trust". For 6.45 billion rubles in a single lot, Tatneft bought shares and shares of companies included in the group - 100% of JSC Ecopet (production complex), 100% of OOO Trade House Ecopolymers (trading house), 100% of the industrial park of OOO BaltTehProm and rights requirements for these companies. The initial price of the auction was 3.75 bn rubles.

Tatneft also plans to launch the production of terephthalic acid (PTA) in order to provide its Ecopet plant in the Kaliningrad region with raw materials.

Ecopet is Europe's largest producer of polyethylene terephthalate. Ecopet JSC is a resident of the SEZ in the Kaliningrad region. The Ecopet group includes OOO TD "Ecopolymers" - a distributor that supplies PET both to the Russian market and to the markets of the European Union and the CIS. Another asset, BaltTechProm LLC, is an industrial park with an area of ??132 hectares with a prospective development site for another 103 hectares.
MRC

1. US crude oil and gasoline stocks grow, even as fuel demand surges to record highs

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US crude oil and gasoline inventories rose last week, alleviating a bit of the market's concerns about supply, though fuel demand surged close to record highs, reported Reuters with reference to the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels in the week to Jan. 21 to 416.2 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 728,000-barrel drop. Gasoline stocks rose by 1.3 million barrels last week to 247.9 million barrels, the EIA said, the most since February of 2021. Analysts were expecting a 2.5 million-barrel rise in stocks. Gasoline stocks generally build during the winter, a less busy season for driving. Overall product supplied - a measure of demand - surged again, putting the four-week moving average at 21.2 million barrels per day, ahead of pre-pandemic trends. The increases have been led by consumption of distillates like diesel, as gasoline use has fallen off modestly in recent weeks.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - A plant near Lake Charles, Louisiana, of Westlake Chemical, US petrochemical major, experienced a fire and explosion on Wednesday morning, reported KPLC News.

An explosion was felt throughout the area and caused a plume of smoke that stretched across the sky.

Plant officials say an empty ethylene dichloride (EDC) tank exploded at about 10:45 local time. The cause is under investigation.

Six injuries have been reported at the plant, none of which appear to be life-threatening, Westlake Chemical spokesman Joe Andrepont said. One person was treated onsite and five people were transported to area hospitals.

Andrepont said at 11:30 a.m. that the fire had been extinguished, all shelters-in-place were lifted, and there were no vapors in the air.

The plant in Lake Charles has the production capacity of 2.22m tonnes/year of EDC. The plant provides EDC and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturing plants near Baton Rouge and New Orleans and in Mississippi.

As MRC informed earlier, Westlake Chemical has lifted its force majeure (FM) on US PVC and upstream VCM, the company announced in a customer letter dated May 17, 2021. The letter said the company was "formally lifting the systemwide force majeure condition for PVC and VCM manufactured and shipped from its North American operations that was originally declared on Feb. 19" as a result of mid-February's deep freeze that "resulted in a shutdown/curtailment of our plant operations."

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of unmixed PVC totalled 911,400 tonnes in January-November 2021, up by 7% year on year. The emulsion and suspension PVC market showed an increase in demand. November estimated consumption of SPVC in Russia was 79,340 tonnes versus 76,720 tonnes in October. Russian producers reduced their exports, and production increased after the completion of scheduled maintenance works.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.
MRC