Air Liquide and Lhoist sign MoU for launching first-of-its-kind decarbonization project in France

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide and Lhoist have signed a MoU with the aim to decarbonize Lhoist’s lime production plant located in Rety, in the Hauts-de-France region, using Air Liquide’s innovative and proprietary Cryocap carbon capture technology, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

In this context, Air Liquide and Lhoist have jointly applied for the European Innovation Fund large scale support scheme. This partnership is a new step in the creation of a low-carbon industrial ecosystem in the broader Dunkirk area.

Lime is one of the hard-to-abate industries as its production primarily generates CO2 from decomposition of limestone. The “Chaux et Dolomies du Boulonnais” Lhoist’s site in Rety is France’s largest lime production plant. Thanks to this project, Lhoist would be able to reduce the CO2 emissions of the plant in Rety by more than 600,000 tpy starting in 2028. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of about 55,000 households in France.

Leveraging its know-how and unique expertise in CO2 capture technologies, Air Liquide would build and operate a unit of its innovative and proprietary Cryocap FG (Flue Gas) technology to capture and purify 95% of the CO2 arising from Lhoist’s existing lime production unit in Rety. Air Liquide’s Cryocap technology would thus be used for the first time to decarbonize lime production in France.

The captured CO2 would then be transported to a multimodal CO2 export hub in Dunkirk, currently under development, and sent to be sequestered in the North Sea as part of the D’Artagnan project, which has received the Project of Common Interest label from the European Commission.

As MRC wrote before, in March 2022, Italian oil and gas company Eni and Air Liquide entered into a collaboration agreement aimed at assessing decarbonization solutions in the Mediterranean region of Europe, focusing on hard-to-abate industrial sectors. The two companies join forces to enable CO2 capture, aggregation, transport and permanent storage.

We remind that 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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- bp has signed a ten-year offtake agreement with Clean Planet Energy, a UK-based company that is developing facilities to convert hard-to-recycle waste plastics into circular petrochemical feedstocks and also into ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD), said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Clean Planet Energy designs and builds facilities — which they refer to as ecoPlants — that are expected to process plastics typically rejected by traditional recycling centers and so would otherwise be sent to landfill or incineration.

Under the new agreement bp will initially receive the output of Clean Planet Energy’s first facility, currently under construction in Teesside in the north-east of England. The Teesside facility is designed to have the capacity to process 20,000 tons a year of waste plastics into naphtha and ULSD. The naphtha can be utilized as feedstock into circular plastics value chains, which is aligned with bp’s aim of unlocking new sources of value through circularity, keeping products and materials in use for longer. Clean Planet Energy will provide bp with the opportunity to expand the relationship by off-taking products from its future plants beyond Teesside.

bp is already leading a series of major hydrogen and carbon capture and storage projects being developed in and around Teesside that will support decarbonisation of the region’s industries.

Clean Planet Energy is currently in the process of developing 12 of its ecoPlants globally. From these facilities alone, the company aims to divert 250,000 tons of hard-to-recycle waste plastic annually from landfills and the environment, creating more than 700 green jobs in local communities. Clean Planet Energy plans to announce further ecoPlants in the UK, EU, South-East Asia and the Americas later this year.

Sven Boss-Walker, SVP Refining & Products Trading at bp, said: “This long-term agreement with Clean Planet Energy for the offtake of naphtha will help bp unlock new sources of value through circularity, while helping divert plastic waste away from landfill, incineration and the environment. Clean Planet Energy’s first facility in Teesside should help accelerate this journey."

Dr. Katerina Garyfalou, Director of Business Development at Clean Planet Energy, said: “We set out to find an international energy company to work with that we felt understood our vision. bp not only put sustainability performance at the heart of their discussions with us from day one, but their global-leading refining and trading businesses means our naphtha product can have an impact in helping to advance a circular economy."

As per MRC, Honeywell announced that bp and Honeywell have signed a licensing agreement for Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining technology. bp is undergoing pre-feed engineering for its proposed diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project in Western Australia. bp plans to convert hydroprocessing equipment at its former refinery site in Kwinana, Australia, to produce approximately 10kbd diesel and SAF from renewable feeds, integrating with its existing terminal operations.|

As MRC informed earlier, bp is seeking to divest the near 20% stake in Russian state-oil company Rosneft it has held since 2013 in the starkest sign yet of the corporate backlash against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

bp is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. bp's business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, bp provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world"s hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- AGC has decided to invest over 100-billion to increase production capacity of its chlor-alkali business in Thailand through an expansion of two manufacturing sites, said Apic-online.

The company will boost the production capacity of AGC Vinythai Public Co. Ltd., a new company being established in July 2022 to integrate AGC's chlor-alkali business in the Indochina Peninsula (PCN, 22 Mar 2021, p 1).

Last year, AGC announced plans to integrate and reorganize its three consolidated subsidiaries and form a new company. The subsidiaries involved include Vinythai Public Co. Ltd. (VNT), AGC Chemicals (Thailand) Co. (ACTH) and AGC Chemicals Vietnam Co.

The expansion project will increase caustic soda capacity to 1.64-million t/y from 1.42-million t/y, vinyl chloride monomer capacity to 1.7-million t/y from 1.3-million t/y, and polyvinyl chloride capacity to 1.6-million t/y from 1.2-million t/y at the current VNT and ACTH sites. Operations are scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2025.

AGC has been studying this expansion and has obtained approval for the environmental impact assessment by the Thai environmental regulatory authority and has now decided to make the investment, AGC noted.

In addition, this capacity expansion will introduce the latest technologies that will improve energy efficiency and production efficiency to reduce environmental impact, the company added.

As per MRC, AGC has begun evaluating an expansion of production capacity at its chlor-alkali subsidiary, Vinythai, as part of its initiative to expand its chlor-alkali business in Thailand. The project would involve increasing the production capacity of polyvinyl chloride to 860,000 t/y from 300,000 t/y, vinyl chloride monomer to 830,000 t/y from 400,000 t/y and caustic soda to 590,000 t/y from 370,000 t/y. A final decision will be made based on the findings of the environmental and health impact assessments.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2016, CMC Biologics, a global leader in clinical and commercial manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies, coagulation factors and other therapeutic proteins and AGC Asahi Glass (AGC), a world-leading manufacturer of glass, chemicals and high-tech materials, announced that they had entered into a definitive agreement with CMC Biologics' shareholders including Monitor Clipper Partners, European Equity Partners and Innoven Partenaires, by which AGC will acquire 100% of CMC Biologics' shares.

Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., more commonly known as AGC, is a global glass manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. It is one of the core Mitsubishi companies.

mrchub.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Neste and United Airlines announced that they have signed a new purchase agreement that provides United the right to buy up to 160,000 mtons (52.5 MM gallons) of Neste MY SAF over the next three years to fuel United flights at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, and potentially other airports, as well, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With this agreement, United became the first U.S. airline to make an international purchase agreement for SAF.

“Reducing carbon emissions from fuel use is the fastest way United will reach 100% green goal by 2050. As the leading U.S. airline globally, it makes sense to accelerate our use of SAF and expand our network of partners internationally with a leading company like Neste,” said Lauren Riley, United’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “The demand from our customers to limit their emissions from flying is growing exponentially, and this agreement means that United customers flying from Amsterdam will be partners in our sustainability efforts.”

Neste will provide United with 7,500 mtons (2.5 MM gallons) of SAF in Amsterdam in the first year. United will also have the right to purchase up to 60,000 mtons (20 MM gallons) in the second year, and up to 90,000 mtons (30 MM gallons) in the third year, at Amsterdam or other locations that Neste can supply throughout the globe, as Neste increases its SAF production globally.

This supply agreement is enabled by Neste’s ambitious growth strategy, which will see the company producing 1.5 mtons (515 MM gallons) of SAF per annum by the end of 2023. Neste has been producing and delivering SAF since 2011 and has a proven track record of supplying SAF to customers in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

As MRC reported earlier, Neste has a target to process annually over 1 MM tons of waste plastic from 2030 onwards. The company plans to use liquefied plastic waste as a raw material at its fossil oil refinery to upgrade it into high-quality drop-in feedstock for the production of new plastics.

We remind that in March 2020, Borealis started to produce polypropylene (PP) based on Neste-produced renewable feedstock in its production facilities in Kallo and Beringen, Belgium. This marked the first time that Borealis has replaced fossil fuel-based feedstock in its large-scale commercial production of PP. The Belgian plants were recently awarded by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) organization with ISCC Plus certification for its renewable PP.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuela has begun importing Iranian heavy crude to feed its domestic refineries, documents from the state-run oil company PDVSA showed, a deal that widens a swap agreement signed last year by the U.S. sanctioned countries, reported Reuters.

The two nations last year initially agreed to a swap deal, with PDVSA importing Iranian condensate to dilute and process its extra heavy oil for export. In return, Venezuelan crude is being shipped via the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Iran's heavy crude, which is similar in quality to Venezuela's Mesa 30 crude, is set to augment domestic oil fed to PDVSA's refineries, according to the documents.

As part of the cooperation pacts, Venezuela in recent years has received Iranian equipment to revamp its refineries. The 146,000-bpd El Palito refinery is restarting a crude distillation unit this week after extensive repairs and upgrading that relied on equipment imported from Iran.

PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

At least 200,000 barrels of Iranian heavy crude were delivered in mid-April to the 310,000-bpd Cardon refinery, Venezuela's second largest. Another 400,000-barrels of Iranian oil, which arrived on the very large crude carrier Dino I, is discharging this week at the country's Jose port, the documents showed.

The Dino I is scheduled to set sail later this month carrying Venezuela fuel oil for NIOC unit Naftiran Intertrade Co, according to one of the documents.

As MRC informed earlier, in November 2021, Venezuelan petrochemicals produced by joint ventures between state-run chemical firm Pequiven and foreign partners have arrived in the United States, despite Washington's efforts to limit trade with the OPEC oil and gas producer. At least two cargoes of methanol, a widely used industrial product whose prices have soared this year, have discharged at Houston area ports since October amid a rapid expansion of the South American country's global sales of petrochemicals and oil byproducts, according to tanker tracking and US customs data.

We remind that from January to October, 2021, PDVSA and Pequiven exported about 1.75 MM tons of petrochemicals and byproducts, putting the trade on track this year to double the 1.03 MM tons exported for the whole of 2020. Shipments of methanol this year ranged between 20,000 and 60,000 metric t per month, mostly bound for the Netherlands, Spain, Japan and China, according to the data and the three people.
MRC