RadiciGroup acquires Indian Ester Industries

RadiciGroup is to acquire the engineering plastics group of India-based polyester films player Ester Industries, said the company.

The company will invest EUR35m in the business, which includes a production site near Gujarat that is due to be operational next year. The deal also includes the transfer of compound lines, research laboratories, customer and supplier contacts and Ester Industries compound brand ESTOPLAST.

“The strategy of our High Performance Polymers business area has been based on working locally in the closest proximity to customers,” said RadiciGroup COO Maurizio Radici. RadiciGroup expect its annual sales in India will increase to EUR50m as a result of the acquisition.

As per MRC, Radici will build a new plant in China to increase production capacity, and will sell products in Australia.
RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers, through its company in China, Radici Plastics Suzhou Co, has signed an agreement with Duromer for the distribution of its products in Australia.

As MRC informed earlier, RadiciGroup is investing more than EUR35m to strengthen its global engineering polymer business with new plants in Mexico and China, as well as a capacity expansion in Europe. In China, work has begun on a new 25,000-square metre plant that will boost production capacity by 30,000 tonnes/year.

RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers is a multinational organization with the capacity to manufacture and supply engineering polymers (based on polyamide, polyester and other materials) around the globe, with the backing of a production and sales network across all continents, as well as research and development increasingly focused on high-performance polymers.
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France-based diversified chemical manufacturer Arkema announces the launch of TIPPOX 2028 stabilizer, the optimized stabilizer solution for the growing base of customers in PMMA production around the globe, according to SpecialChem.

TIPPOX 2028 stabilizer offers a new approach to traditionally utilized methods of handling thermal degradation.

TIPPOX 2028 stabilizer saves customers on operational costs by enabling higher processing temperature and higher throughput, while reducing defects and VOCs.

TIPPOX 2028 stabilizer expertly addresses the issue of PMMA thermal stabilization, which is essential for efficient processing.

TIPPOX 2028 outperforms typical competitor stabilizers, limiting bubble formation, and improving thermal stability with no compromise in mechanical properties, as it may happen with acrylate co-monomers.

“We are very excited to launch our TIPPOX 2028 stabilizer. Helping PMMA players to achieve higher performance and potentially lower VOCs is another example of how Arkema is delivering solutions for a more sustainable world,” Paul Guillaume Schmitt, specialities business manager for Arkema.

As MRC informed previously, in late February 2022, Arkema closed its previously announced acquisition of Ashland’s Performance Adhesives business for around USD1.65bn in an all-cash transaction. The company signed an agreement to acquire Ashland’s business in August last year. Ashland’s Performance Adhesives business supplies a wide range of adhesives for flexible packaging and pressure-sensitive adhesives for various markets, including decorative labels, protection and signage films for automotives and buildings. The business operates a network of six production plants, most of which are located in North America, and has around 330 employees.

Arkema is one of the world's leading chemical manufacturers headquartered in Colombes (near Paris, France). Founded in 2004 as a result of the restructuring of the French oil company Total, Arkema, with a turnover of EUR6.5 billion, has operations in 40 countries, 10 research centers around the world, and 85 plants in Europe, North America and Asia.
MRC

Evonik will remove its Performance Materials business unit from its product line in a bid to transform its portfolio in the course of 2023, said the company.

The firm is looking for new owners or partners of its Superabsorbents, Functional Solutions and Performance Intermediates segments – which comprise the Performance Materials business – as part of its strategic transformation. Instead, Evonik will focus its portfolio on Specialty Additives, Nutrition and Care, and Smart Materials.

Money made from the sale of these business and the operating cash flow in the coming years has been earmarked to help with the company’s green transformation. Evonik is aiming to invest more than EUR3bn – around 80% of annual growth investments – in what it calls next generation solutions (products with sustainability benefits) by 2030. The company has put out the corresponding target of increasing its sales share of next generation solutions from 37% to more than 50% by 2030.

These products include drug delivery technologies for controlled release of pharmaceutical ingredients, gas separation membranes for biogas in hydrogen, and natural-based active ingredients for cosmetics. A further EUR700m is targeted for investment in technologies which reduce CO2 emissions from production processes and infrastructure (what Evonik calls next generation technologies).

Through this investment Evonik aims to cut its operating costs by more than EUR100m a year up to 2030. This is in line with the producer’s Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 25% from 6.5m tonnes to 4.9m tonnes by 2030.

As per MRC, Evonik Catalysts has opened a new zero liquid discharge (ZLD) plant at its facility in Dombivli, India. The new plant reduces the amount of fresh water required for production processes and turns material that was previously considered waste into saleable products. ZLD purifies and recycles wastewater at the end of an industrial process, leaving little to no effluent remaining when it is completed. This means not only more efficient water use, but also a significant reduction in waste liquid.

We remind that in February, 2020, Dow and Evonik entered into an exclusive technology partnership. Together, they plan to bring a unique method for directly synthesizing propylene glycol (PG) from propylene and hydrogen peroxide to market maturity.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The company is active in more than 100 countries around the world and generated sales of EUR12.2 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of EUR1.91 billion in 2020. Evonik goes far beyond chemistry to create innovative, profitable and sustainable solutions for customers.
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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.
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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