MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Maruzen Petrochemical Co., Toyo Engineering Corporation and Sojitz Machinery Corporation announced that a joint pilot project to be demonstrated by the four companies is to be funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The project partners had applied to the Green Innovation Fund for projects aimed at the development of technology for producing raw materials for plastics using CO2 and other sources, focusing in particular on the development of advanced technologies for naphtha crackers.
The goal of the pilot project is to switch naphtha crackers from running on conventional methane-based fuel to one in which ammonia is the principal component, thereby reducing the CO2 emissions generated by combustion. The trial is expected to run for 10 years in order to be implemented in society after feasibility has been demonstrated in an entirely ammonia-fired commercial cracker in the project’s final year.
As MRC informed before, earlier this month, Covestro entered into an agreement with Mitsui Chemicals on the supply of raw materials phenol and acetone from ISCC Plus certified mass-balanced sources. Both components will be used for the production of polycarbonate at Covestro's Asian sites in Shanghai, China, and Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The high-performance plastic is used, for example, in car headlights, LED lights, electronic and medical devices and automotive glazing. Japan's Mitsui Chemicals and Mitsui & Co., Ltd are already a long-standing supplier to Covestro.
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