South Korean petrochemical plant blast kills four

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korean authorities have ordered workers off one of petrochemical company Yeochun NCC’s (YNCC) naphtha crackers in the city of Yeosu after a blast killed four people and injured four, said Reuters.

The incident at YNCC’s third plant in Yeosu comes as businesses brace for greater scrutiny under a new South Korean law punishing management for incidents involving worker death.

The regional office of South Korea’s labour ministry told Reuters that the ministry ordered workers to halt work at the entire third plant.

As per MRC, South Korea's Yeochun Naphtha Cracking Center (YNCC), a major petrochemical producer in the country, increased capacity at Yeosu Cracking Unit No. 2 on December 23 (South Korea). The capacity of this cracker with a capacity of 915,000 tonnes of ethylene and 590,000 tonnes of propylene per year was reduced on December 20 due to a technical breakdown.

Yeochun Naphtha Cracking Center (YNCC) operates the naphtha cracker. The company pyrolyzes naphtha to produce key feedstocks for the petrochemical industry. YNCC products include ethylene, propylene, propane, C4 blend, pyrolysis gasoline, hydrogen, benzene, toluene, xylene, cyclo-pentane, styrene monomer, butadiene, ethylene, benzene, MTBE, butene-1, isobutene, isobutane, n-butane etc. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in Seoul, South Korea.
MRC

PBF Energy weighs renewable diesel project at Chalmette refinery

PBF Energy weighs renewable diesel project at Chalmette refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PBF Energy aims to begin production at a planned renewable diesel project at its Chalmette refinery in Louisiana in the first half of 2023, said the company.

The 20,000 bbl/day project will incorporate certain idled assets, including an idle hydrocracker, along with a newly-constructed pre-treatment unit. PBF has been advancing the project for more than a year, with a focus on completing engineering, permitting, securing longer-lead time equipment and commencing initial site preparations, it said.

At the same time, PBF continues discussions with potential strategic and financial partners, it added. Last year, company officials indicated a project cost of USD550m.

PBF Energy expects to begin producing renewable diesel at its Chalmette refinery in the first half of 2023, marking the company's deepest move yet into lower-carbon business lines. PBF has already delayed plans to begin the 20,000 b/d renewable diesel project at Chalmette, after announcing in April of last year that it planned to convert an idled hydrocracker at the facility within six months.

As MRC wrote previously, in H1 September, 2021, US-based PBF Energy began the process of restarting aromatics production in Chalmette, southeast Louisiana, USA after an unscheduled maintenance, caused by Hurricane Ida. The plant's production capacity is 185,000 mt/year of benzene, 180,000 mt/year of toluene and 270,000 mt/year of xylenes. PBF Energy restarted most of the production at its refinery in Chalmetta around September 17, 2021. The facility was shut down due to a power outage when Hurricane Ida hit the coast on 29 August.

Benzene is feedstock for the production of styrene monomer (SM), which, in its turn, is the main raw material for the production of polystyrene (PS).

As per ICIS-MRC Price Report, Russia's prices of domestic polystyrene (PS) rose significantly this month.
Iranian general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) to be shipped this month was offered in the domestic market at Rb193,000-195,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. Prices of European styrene monomer (SM) increased this week and were in the range of USD1,460-1,503/tonne.

PBF Energy Inc. is one of the largest independent refiners in North America, operating, through its subsidiaries, oil refineries and related facilities in California, Delaware, Louisiana, New Jersey and Ohio.
MRC

Lotte Chemical to invest USD502 mln in expantion of eco-friendly specialty materials plants at its petrochemical complex in Daesan

Lotte Chemical to invest USD502 mln in expantion of eco-friendly specialty materials plants at its petrochemical complex in Daesan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Corp., South Korean petrochemical major, is set to spend 602 billion won (USD501.5 million) in building eco-friendly materials plants at one of its petrochemical complexes in the country, according to Kemicalinfo.

Lotte said on Monday it agreed with a local government to invest in a battery electrolyte organic solvents factory as well as carbon capture and utilization (CCU) facility at its petrochemical complex in Daesan, about 140 kilometers southwest of Seoul.

“This investment is a key step in ‘Green Promise 2030’ to expand eco-friendly and specialty chemical materials such as battery electrolyte organic solvents and carbon dioxide capture projects,” Lotte’s basic materials business head Hwang Jin-gu said in a statement.

Lotte plans to build a plant to produce organic solvents - high-purity ethylene carbonate (EC) and di-methyl carbonate (DMC) - for electrolytes, a key material for lithium-ion batteries. South Korea totally relies on imports for organic solvents that make up about 30% of the electrolytes’ total cost.

The company decided to set up a facility that captures and liquefies 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide with a target of commercialization in the second half of 2023. The carbon dioxide processed in the facility will be used as materials for the high-purity EC and DMC, as well as sold as materials for semicon-ductor cleaning liquid.

In addition, Lotte will expand the production capacity of ethylene oxide adduct, a high-value-added construction material, to 480,000 tons a year from 330,000 tons.

Meanwhile, Lotte plans to triple liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) use for ethylene production at the Daesan complex as the domestic industry rushed to diversify feedstock for cost-cutting amid expecta-tions of lower naphtha supply from local refineries, which aim petrochemical markets. It will ramp up LPG cracking at the complex to about 30% from the current 10%.

That is a part of the company’s plan to increase LPG usage announced in July 2021, a company source said. At that time, Lotte said it will invest 140 billion won in domestic facilities to raise the gas usage for ethylene output to 40% by the end of this year from 20%. It operates ethylene plants in Daesan and Yeosu with a combined annual capacity of 2.3 million tons.

As MRC reported before, Lotte Chemical plans to take off-stream its naphtha cracker in Yeosu for a scheduled maintenance this year. The company is expected to put its Yeosu naphtha cracker under scheduled maintenance around May or June, 2022. Lotte's Yeosu naphtha cracker can produce 1.2 million tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene.

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 2,265,290 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2021, up by 14% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Lotte Chemical runs two naphtha crackers in South Korea. One cracker is located in Daesan county in Seosan which can produce 1.1 million tonnes per year of ethylene with the other 1.2 million tonnes per year cracker in the southwestern city of Yeosu.
MRC

Tosoh appoints new president

Tosoh appoints new president

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese chemicals company Tosoh Corp has appointed Mamoru Kuwada as its new president and representative director, effective 1 March, said the company.

Kuwada is currently executive vice president of Tosoh and president of Tosoh’s Specialty Group. In his new role, Kuwada succeeds Toshinori Yamamoto, who will become a corporate advisor to the company after the annual general meeting in June.

“Implementation of the company’s fiscal 2023 medium-term business plan will be overseen by a new management team, with the aim of further strengthening its earnings and business foundation and achieving further growth,” Tosoh said.

Tosh is a large chlor-alkali producer and it supplies ethylene, polyethylene, and functional polymers. It also has an advanced materials business that serves the global semiconductor, display, and solar industries.

As MRC informed earlier, Tosoh Corporation, a major Japanese petrochemical producer, has announced it will permanently stop producing and selling toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and TDI-related products from its Nanyo complex in Japan, effective April 2023. Despite the continuous implementation of measures to improve profitability, the environment surrounding this business has become increasingly severe in recent years, and there are no prospects for improvement, the company stated. Tosoh currently produce 25,000 t/y of TDI at the site.

As MRC reported earlier, Tosoh resumed normal production at its caustic soda plant in Nanyo City (Nanyo, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan) with the capacity of 1.188 million tons of caustic soda and 1.06 million tons of chlorine per year on June 24, 2021. The company experienced some technical issues when restarting after a scheduled repair. Since June 12, the caustic and chlorine production capacity utilisation was reduced by about 30%.

Founded in 1935, Japan's Tosoh Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, is an international chemicals and specialty materials company. The main activity of the company is the production of chlor-alkali and petrochemical products, which include ethylene, propylene, polypropylene, polyethylene and synthetic rubbers. The Tosoh Group globally includes over 130 companies with manufacturing facilities and offices in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, UK, Greece, Switzerland and the USA.
MRC

Essar Oil to build UK first refinery-based hydrogen furnace

Essar Oil to build UK first refinery-based hydrogen furnace

MOSCW (MRC) -- Essar Oil UK, the leading UK-focused downstream energy company, announces plans to install a new GBP45 MM (US60.8 MM) furnace at Stanlow that’s capable of using hydrogen as its fuel source, which is the first for the UK, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This marks another milestone in Essar’s goal to becoming the UK’s first low carbon refinery. It follows the launch of Vertex Hydrogen last month, a new Essar-led JV, in which the company will invest GBP1 B (USD1.3 B) over the next five years to drive down emissions, including the development of new hydrogen production plants at Stanlow, forming a central part of the HyNet Northwest decarbonization cluster.

The scheme (which is subject to planning approval) comprises the decommissioning of three existing furnaces and their replacement with a single, highly efficient furnace, which includes a chimney of approximately 71 m.

The scheme will provide a number of improvements that will lead to benefits for Stanlow and the surrounding area, including lower carbon emissions due to gas-only firing and new burners that emit lower levels of nitrogen oxide and futureproofing to enable the use of sustainable fuel types in the future such as hydrogen. The furnace is currently being fabricated in Thailand. The largest single module is 26.5 m long, by 18.5 m tall, by 14.5 m and the furnace will be delivered on site almost fully constructed.

The new furnace forms a key part of the company’s strategy to reduce its own carbon emissions. The furnace is unique in that it will have the capability to run entirely off hydrogen, becoming the first of its kind based at a UK refinery. It has an improved energy efficiency of 4% compared to existing furnaces, which will save 16,600 tons of CO2 per year, as well as reducing ongoing maintenance costs.

Set to be installed in 2022, the furnace will become fully operational next year. From 2026 onwards it will be fueled by hydrogen produced at Stanlow as part of the HyNet Northwest decarbonization cluster. Essar’s Vertex Hydrogen will develop the world’s first and largest blue hydrogen production plant at Stanlow. Hydrogen will be used at the site and will be distributed to industrial businesses in the region to support their transition to low carbon.

As MRC informed earlier, British refiner Essar Oil plans to build two low-carbon hydrogen plants at its Standlow refinery in northwest England at a cost of 750 million pounds (USD1 billion). The company submitted planning applications for the project in October, 2021.

We remind that in late September 2019, Essar resumed operations at its cracker in Stanlow, UK with the capacity of 45,000 mt/year of ethylene and 165,000 mt/year of propylene. It was shut on 11 September, 2019, due to the power outage at the site.

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 2,265,290 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2021, up by 14% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC