Lummus and Braskem announce partnership for green ethylene technology

Lummus Technology announced a partnership with Braskem, the largest biopolymer producer in the world, to license green ethylene technology, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Lummus and Braskem will license worldwide technology to produce green ethylene and accelerate the use of bioethanol for chemicals and plastics, supporting the industry's efforts towards a carbon neutral circular economy.
"We are truly excited with this partnership, which helps the world diversify the feedstock sources for chemicals and plastics with biomass. Leveraging the combined experience and expertise of Lummus and Braskem to produce green ethylene thus reduces carbon footprint and plays a promising role in the energy transition," said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology.

"Braskem has already been operating the technology successfully at large scale, and together we are going to expand the world's production of low carbon chemicals and polymers from renewable feedstocks, helping our customers decarbonize their assets and produce greener products."

Lummus, a recognized leader in ethylene production technologies, has licensed approximately 40 % of global ethylene capacity, giving the company the technical capability and licensing expertise to further develop and market the technology behind green ethylene. This partnership enables the license of the technology globally with the first two projects being developed in the U.S. and Thailand; the later still under evaluation and subject to the approvals of the respective governance bodies.

"Lummus brings licensing experience and process knowledge into this partnership to extend the reach of Braskem's proven green ethylene technology worldwide," said Walmir Soller, VP Olefins/Polyolefins Braskem Europe & Asia and CEO Braskem Netherlands BV. "With this initiative, we believe we are also contributing with an alternative for the industry to move towards a carbon neutral circular economy."

This partnership reflects Lummus' strategic business direction, through its subsidiary Green Circle, as a leader in commercializing and developing breakthrough solutions to address the key pillars of the energy transition, including end-of-life waste plastics recycling, production of bio-derived sustainable chemicals and decarbonization strategies for existing and new assets. Together, Lummus and Braskem are ensuring the growth of green ethylene production worldwide and meeting the demand for green ethylene.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late 2020, Braskem announced its latest sustainability ambitions to significantly expand its efforts to eliminate plastic waste in the environment by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

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.

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).
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Producer of virgin polyethylene terephthalate (PET) PT Bumi Indus Padma Jaya is on track to launch its recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) facility in Indonesia by the second quarter of the year, said Reuters.

The new facility will produce approximately 15,000-18,000 tonnes/year of bottle-to-bottle R-PET pellets, mainly for exports outside Asia. It will target mainly downstream converters in both Europe and the US as most demand is coming from those markets, said a company source.

Currently, with high freight costs, shipping to Europe is more economical as longer distance exports bound to the US will incur significantly higher freight rates. Acknowledging the continuous entry of major players into the R-PET space, the company remains upbeat on the R-PET market as global demand continues to outstrip existing production capacity.

Other recyclers, including Bumi Indus, believe however that the feedstock price increases will be in tandem with R-PET pellet price increases.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, the shortage of free PET quantities are expected to remain in Russia in April, whereas prices will continue to rise. PET prices for contract clients will also increase next month. Market participants said last week's deals for small lots of PET chips were done at Rb240,000-260,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.
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BASF and thyssenkrupp Uhde achieved measurable improvements in the STAR process, a proprietary dehydrogenation process from thyssenkrupp Uhde that can produce propylene from propane feedstocks, or iso-butylene from iso-butane feedstocks, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The technology has been optimized to reduce CO2 emissions and operating costs through lower energy consumption by up to 30%, while also reducing investment costs and enabling additional feedstock savings. Started in 2020, thyssenkrupp Uhde focussed in this joint development on the optimisation and further development of the STAR process, while BASF validated the targeted improvements through an extended test program.

“The cooperation between BASF and thyssenkrupp Uhde over the past 18 months since announcing the joint development agreement has been exceptional and seamless”, says Guido Daniel, Executive Director Petrochemicals and Polymers at thyssenkrupp Uhde. “In a joint team effort, both partners have provided their specific expertise to improve the dehydrogenation process. The results show that we significantly exceeded our goals to reduce the consumption of energy and resources of the STAR process.”

As MRC informed before, BASF and Henkel jointly commit to replacing fossil carbon feedstock with renewable feedstock for most products in Henkel’s European Laundry & Home Care and Beauty Care businesses over the next four years following a successful pilot with Henkel’s cleaning and detergent brand Love Nature in 2021.

We remind that BASF is to increase its production capacity for plastic additives at its sites in Pontecchio Marconi, Italy and Lampertheim, Germany. BASF did not disclose, however, current or future capacities for its production of plastic additives hindered amine light stabilizers (HALS).

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

A fire erupted at Qilu Petrochemical’s Shengli refinery in Shandong, China on 24 April due to hydrogen leakage, prompting the shutdown of its reformer and hydrocracking units, said Reuters.

The incident occurred at 00:02 Beijing time (16:02 GMT) on 24 April and was extinguished about an hour and-a-half later, Qilu Petrochemical said on social media platform Weibo. The company is a subsidiary of Chinese petrochemical major Sinopec.

The 14m tonne/year refinery is currently running at around 70%-80% load, but there is possibility of a reduction in operating rates after the incident, the company source said. The reformer that was shut has an 800,000 tonne/year capacity, while the site produces 800,000 tonnes/year of ethylene, according to the Qilu Petrochemical’s website.

Qilu Petrochemical’s 100,000 tonne/year benzene unit was shut down due to the fire, but downstream styrene production was not affected so far. Its 240,000 tonne/year styrene unit continues to run at 80-90% of capacity, market sources said.

As MRC reported earlier, a fire at Chembond Chemicals’ plant in Maharasthra, India has killed one person. The fire, which broke out at the plant in Tarapur at 9:30 am India time (04:30 GMT) on 21 April , was immediately brought under control, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Operations at the plant have been temporarily suspended as the fire had damaged raw materials and finished goods stored at the plant, the machinery and the building, Chembond said. The plant will resume operations once it receives necessary approvals from statutory authorities.
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Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar and its Cairo-based partner Hassan Allam Utilities, have secured Egypt’s support to develop green hydrogen hubs on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean coasts of the country, targeting up to 4 GW of electrolysers by 2030, according to Kemicalinfo.

The partners signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), The Sovereign Fund of Egypt, and The General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) to cooperate on the project development, Masdar announced on Sunday.

Masdar and Hassan Allam Utilities expect to develop the project in stages. In the first phase, they plan to build a green hydrogen production plant to produce 100,000 tonnes of e-methanol per year for bunkering in the Suez Canal.

That plant would be operational by 2026.

In the following stages, the electrolysis capacity in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and on the Mediterranean could be expanded to up to 4 GW by 2030 to produce 2.3 million tonnes of green ammonia for exports, and to supply green hydrogen to local industries.

The latest agreements come as the government of Egypt prepares to revise its 2030 renewable energy strategy to include green hydrogen. The nation’s green hydrogen strategy is currently in development and is expected to be released by October 2022, according to Masdar.

As MRC informed before, in September 2021, bp, ADNOC and Masdar signed three agreements with the potential to lead to billions of dollars of investment into clean and low carbon energy, creating potentially thousands of energy jobs.

The first agreement would see the companies collaborate to initially develop 2GW of low carbon hydrogen across hubs in the UK and UAE, with the intention to expand as the project progresses. Access to clean hydrogen - a critical fuel in the decarbonization of hard-to-abate industries - can reduce emissions, enable new, low carbon products, and unlock future fuels. This announcement could enable a significant contribution towards the UK Government’s target to develop 5GW of hydrogen production by 2030.

We remind that bp expects to invest around USD2 billion in low carbon energy in 2021, rising to USD3-4 billion in 2025 and aiming for around USD5 billion in 2030.
MRC