AkzoNobel opens global R&D center in the UK

AkzoNobel says it has opened a new global research and development center at its Slough site in the U.K., reportedly adding to a growing list of similar facilities located in countries around the world, said the company.

The facility – home to 120 specialists – will act as a major hub within the company’s worldwide R&D network and help to further advance AkzoNobel’s innovation capabilities, especially in the area of decorative paints, according to the company.

The site reportedly is the latest in a series of centers opened by AkzoNobel designed to advance the company’s product development. Additional centers include an automotive facility in Poland, an application training center in Dubai, an innovation campus in Felling, U.K., and a global innovation, development and training center in Qatar for the company’s marine coatings business.

Fiona McLachlan, AkzoNobel’s technical director – color, says, "Our paints and coatings have a strong heritage in the U.K. and Ireland, touching so many aspects of our day-to-day lives. This modern, fit-for-purpose center will continue this legacy into the future. It will enable us to further our long-standing contributions to the paints and coatings industry, while helping to drive the local economy, both regionally and nationally."

The new center is located close to the company’s flagship Dulux Academy, a purpose-built facility which, along with 12 other locations in Dulux Decorator Centers and colleges, provides painters and decorators with expertise to help improve product, application and technical knowledge and understanding, according to the company.

As per MRC, AkzoNobel expects business in Russia to wind down in the next couple of months due to difficulties accessing raw materials and the increasing deterioration of supply chains. The firm, which operates four plants in the country, expects its Russian assets to go out of business within the next couple of months due to the impact of sanctions imposed on the country and intensifying supply chain disruption, as well as the ability of key customers to finance orders.

As MRC previously reported, AkzoNobel completed a capacity expansion at its industrial coatings plant in Songjiang, near Shanghai, China, in March 202, doubling its packaging lacquer and coating capacity. After expansion, the plant became one of the world's largest enterprises for the production of industrial coatings, as well as epoxy and polyester resins.

AkzoNobel is the world's largest manufacturer of paints and coatings, also a leader in specialty chemicals.
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To further strengthen its commitment to sustainable development, Braskem, the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas and leading producer of biopolymers in the world, announces the investment of R130 million dollars in three projects to advance the circular economy, according to SpecialChem.

This includes inauguration of a mechanical recycling plant, the start of construction of Brazil's first advanced recycling plant with technology developed by Valoren and the start of construction of a circular packaging development center.

Around R67 million dollars is invested in building a mechanical recycling plant in Indaiatuba, Sao Paulo, with startup slated for March. The project was made possible by the partnership with Valoren, a company engaged in the development of new technologies and the management of solid waste for its transformation into recycled products.

The expectation is that the region will transform 250 million units of post-consumer packaging made from polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) used in cleaning, personal care, cosmetics, and food products, for example, into 14,000 tons of high-quality resins for reuse as raw materials by the plastics converter industry. The plant is already in the commissioning and assisted pre-operational phase.

One of Braskem's innovative fronts for complementing the closure of the circular economy was the signing of another disruptive project with Valoren for the construction and startup of an advanced recycling unit, also located in the city of Indaiatuba. The unit will chemically transform plastic waste using a pyrolysis process into a certified circular raw material for use in making resins or chemical inputs.

The new unit, which was made possible by a joint investment of RD44 million and will start-up in the first quarter of 2023, will have an annual production capacity of 6,000 tons of circular products.

"After six years of research and development into innovative new technologies in the pyrolysis of plastic waste, we are very satisfied to be partnering once again with Braskem, which further confirms our joint commitment to the circular economy,” said Heinz-Peter Elstrodt, partner and chairman of Valoren.

By mid-2022, Braskem expects to inaugurate Cazoolo, its circular economy packaging development center located in the West zone of Sao Paulo city, for an investment of R20 million dollars.

The initiatives, which jointly will require an investment of over R130 million dollars, are directly related to the targets that Braskem has undertaken for the coming years.

In its efforts to eliminate plastic waste, Braskem will expand its production portfolio to include, by 2025, 300, 000 tons of thermoplastic resins and chemical products with recycled content, and by 2030, 1 million tons of such products. Also by 2030, it aims to eliminate 1.5 million tons of plastic waste from being sent to incineration, landfills, or disposal in the environment.

As MRC informed previously, in February 2022, Braskem S.A. announced its investment in Nexus Circular LLC. Using a proprietary advanced recycling technology, Nexus converts a range of hard-to-recycle plastics especially landfill bound plastic films into its circular feedstocks which can then be converted back into virgin plastics (fully circular).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
MRC

Eni and the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Republic of Benin signs a cooperation agreement to develop joint initiatives on the agro-industrial chain, for biorefining use, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the terms of the agreement, the parts will evaluate potential opportunities in the country in the field of agriculture and vegetable raw material to develop oil crops for Eni’s biorefining system.

The agreement will allow Eni to contribute to the development of new industrial models in the country, ensuring the sustainability along the whole agro-feedstock supply chain. It will play a key role in the energy transition for both Eni and the Republic of Benin, which is already a net negative CO2 issuer.

As MRC wrote earlier, Eni is evaluating conversion of its Livorno refinery in northwest Italy into a biorefinery, as part of the Italian company's wider strategy to make its activities more environmentally sustainable. Eni has already converted two of its Italian refineries and is looking to almost double its biorefining capacity to around 2 million mt/year by 2024, and expand this to at least five times by 2050, as part of its pledge to achieve complete carbon neutrality 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 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Eni, abbreviation of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, in full Eni SpA, Italian energy company operating primarily in petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals. Established in 1953, it is one of Europe's largest oil companies in terms of sales.
MRC

AkzoNobel expects business in Russia to wind down in the next couple of months due to difficulties accessing raw materials and the increasing deterioration of supply chains, said the company.

The firm, which operates four plants in the country, expects its Russian assets to go out of business within the next couple of months due to the impact of sanctions imposed on the country and intensifying supply chain disruption, as well as the ability of key customers to finance orders.

AkzoNobel is the latest producer to forecast a wind-down of Russian operations, after Germany-based LANXESS stated that it would cease business in the country as completely as contracts allow.

Most European oil and gas players have announced plans to pull out of Russia and divest stakes in joint ventures in the country, while Borealis stated don 11 March that it does not intend to accept an offer to acquire its fertilizers business from EuroChem, a Switzerland-headquartered player with most of its operations in Russia.

As per MRC, AkzoNobel strengthened its paints business and footprint in Spain by completing the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Spanish decorative paints maker Titan Paints for an undisclosed fee. The transaction includes Titan Paints' three production plants in El Prat (Barcelona), Las Palmas (Canary Islands), and Maia in Portugal, seven logistics and service centers for decorative paints, the company said in a statement. Titan Paints generated sales of about EUR80m in 2019 and has 425 employees. The deal was first announced in October 2020.

As MRC previously reported, AkzoNobel completed a capacity expansion at its industrial coatings plant in Songjiang, near Shanghai, China, in March 202, doubling its packaging lacquer and coating capacity. After expansion, the plant became one of the world's largest enterprises for the production of industrial coatings, as well as epoxy and polyester resins.

AkzoNobel is the world's largest manufacturer of paints and coatings, also a leader in specialty chemicals.
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BASF launched a new fluid catalytic cracking catalyst designed to maximize butylenes from resid feedstocks, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Fortitude, the latest product based on BASF’s multiple framework topology (MFT) technology, is optimized to deliver superior selectivity to butylenes while maintaining catalyst activity.

MFT technology enhances performance through the use of more than one framework topology working together to tailor the catalyst selectivity profile. Fourtitude combines the benefits of MFT and metals passivation technologies to deliver superior butylenes selectivity and metals resistance for resid feedstock applications. The superior butylenes selectivity is achieved by employing a specialty zeolite framework that is more effective at cracking small olefins to butylene.

Fourtitude refinery trials have validated its ability to deliver improved performance for refiners through increased butylenes and propylene yields, increased gasoline octane and improved coke selectivity.

"Fourtitude is an important addition to BASF’s industry-leading and advanced refinery catalysts portfolio,” said Detlef Ruff, Senior Vice President, Process Catalysts at BASF. “We are pleased to introduce an innovative product to help our customers processing resid feedstocks to improve butylenes selectivity and overall performance of refineries."

As per MRC, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, 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 Development and Solids Processing Center will serve as a global hub for pilot-scale production and process innovations of chemical catalysts.

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.
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