Dow launches plant-based elastomers for sustainable footwear

Dow launches plant-based elastomers for sustainable footwear

Dow Inc. has announced the launch of a new high-performance polyolefin elastomer (POE) from plant-based feedstock, said Sustainableplastics.

Engage Ren, is a “more sustainable brand extension” to the company’s Engage range POEs and is produced using renewable energy and feedstocks such as used cooking oil, Dow said 3 May. The brand was enabled by Dow’s Ecolibrium technology, which transforms sustainably sourced waste and by-products from other industries, into plastics.

As only waste residues or by-products from an alternative production process are utilised, the raw feedstock materials don’t consume extra land resources nor compete with the food chain, Dow added.

According to the materials supplier, the polymers deliver “equivalent performance” in the final application as fossil-fuel counterparts and do not require reformulation. Dow said it has begun supplying the plant-based polymers for use in Crocs’ manufacturing process of its Croslite material.

The materials, according to Dow, will have a lower CO2 impact compared to Croc’s current sustainable materials.

As per MRC, Dow has announced plans to expand its global alkoxylation capacity in the US and Europe to meet increasing demand across a wide range of fast-growing end-markets where the company is delivering 10% to 15% annual growth rates, from home and personal care to industrial and institutional cleaning solutions and pharmaceuticals. The faster-payback, higher return investments announced today will increase Dow's capacity, while maintaining current carbon emissions levels through the use of efficient technologies and site improvements. These investments in the US and Europe are backed by supply agreements with customers, including leading consumer brands, and expected to come online in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, Dow and Plastogaz SA announced a strategic investment which will help simplify the process of converting plastic waste to feedstock and provide another carbon-efficient option to keep plastic waste out of landfills and the environment. The collaboration marks another milestone in Dow’s ongoing mission to protect the climate and close the loop on plastic waste.

Dow combines global breadth, asset integration and scale, focused innovation and leading business positions to achieve profitable growth. The Company's ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company, with a purpose to deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and collaboration with our partners. Dow's portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer care. Dow operates 106 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 35,700 people.

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Russian fuel oil exports to UAE Fujairah set to spike in May

Russian fuel oil arrivals in the UAE oil hub of Fujairah are set to jump sharply to about 2.5 MM barrels this month, data shows, in a sign that flows of Russian oil and refined products are shifting away from Europe, as per Reuters.

The arrivals in May are about 125% higher than April levels, and about 24% higher than a recent record in November 2021, the data from oil analytics firm Vortexa showed.

Russian fuel oil exports from the Black Sea ports of Taman and Novorossiysk to Fujairah are fairly common, but Baltic exports are much rarer and those flows have jumped sharply in April and May, the data showed.

One trader said the increased volumes were mainly going into the bunkering pool in Fujairah- the world's third largest bunkering hub after Singapore and Rotterdam. Trading Russian crude and oil products has become more difficult as Western buyers avoid it in response to the Ukraine conflict.

Large companies, including Shell, BP and TotalEnergies have already said they have stopped buying cargoes of crude oil and refined products of Russian origin. Major global trading houses are planning to reduce crude and fuel purchases from Russia's state-controlled oil companies as from May 15 to avoid falling foul of European Union sanctions on Russia.

Fuel oil, is a by-product of refining crude oil into lighter, cleaner products like road fuels and is used as a shipping fuel, in power generation, or as feedstock for some refining units which upgrade it into other fuels.

We remind, Shell has agreed to sell over 400 retail fuel stations and a lubricants blending plant in Russia to Lukoil.
Known as Shell Neft, the business operates fuel stations in central and northwest Russia, while the Torzhok blending plant is around 200km northwest of Moscow. Shell has committed to gradually withdrawing from all Russian hydrocarbon activities. Deal terms were not disclosed.
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PTTGC Q1 net profit falls 57% on weak chemical margins

PTTGC Q1 net profit falls 57% on weak chemical margins

PTT Global Chemical’s first-quarter net profit declined by 57% year on year as chemical margins fell following spikes in feedstock costs, said the company.

First-quarter revenues were up 72% year on year, on a combination of a crude-led increase in petrochemical prices and demand recovery as more countries continued to ease their COVID-19 restrictions. Sales volume during the period increased “mainly from the volume realized after the completion of the Allnex acquisition” in the fourth quarter of last year, PTTGC said.

PTTGC completed the €4bn acquisition of Germany-based specialty chemicals maker Allnex at the end of December 2021. Strong petrochemical prices in the first quarter were also driven by some tightening of supply due to turnarounds and a “slowdown in production of some producers in the region”. For olefins, the adjusted EBITDA margins for the first quarter declined to 11% from 26% in the same period last year.

Olefins and derivatives’ adjusted EBITDA declined 38% year on year to Thai baht (Bt) 4.83bn (USD140m), while aromatics incurred a loss of Bt1.11bn. For the performance materials and chemicals business, first-quarter adjusted EBITDA grew 54% over the period to Bt6.34bn, largely due to the Allnex acquisition; while green chemicals’ earnings more than doubled to Bt730m.

PTTGC booked a loss of Bt8.57bn from commodity hedging, consisting of a realized loss of Bt2.57bn and an unrealized loss of about Bt6bn, the company said in the notes accompanying its Q1 financial results.

As per MRC, Aramco is exploring further collaboration with Thailand’s national oil company PTT, as it expands its downstream presence in Asia. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at a ceremony in Bangkok on May 11. The companies aim to strengthen cooperation across crude oil sourcing and the marketing of refining and petrochemical products and LNG. Other potential areas of activity include blue and green hydrogen and various clean energy initiatives.

As per MRC, Thai PTTGC is planning a capital investment of USD608 million over five years, including two start-ups this year. PTTGC's joint venture with Austrian packaging and recycling company ALPLA, called ENVICCO Ltd, is expected to produce recycled polymers at Map Ta Phut in Rayong Province. The ENVICCO plant, which can produce 30,000 tons per year of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) and 15,000 tons per year of recycled low-density polyethylene (R-HDPE), is expected to enter commercial operation in the first quarter of 2022.

PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) was founded on October 19, 2011 after the merger of PTT Chemical Company and PTT Aromatics and Refining Company to become the flagship of the PTT chemical group. As a result of the integration, the company's total capacity for the production of olefins and aromatics reached 8.2 million tons per year, and oil products - 280 thousand barrels per day, which makes it the largest integrated petrochemical and oil refining company not only in Thailand, but also in Asia.
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Chevron and Exxonmobil to explore lower carbon opportunities in Indonesia

Chevron and Exxonmobil to explore lower carbon opportunities in Indonesia

Chevron and ExxonMobil have signed separate agreements with state energy company PT Pertamina to explore lower carbon business opportunities in Indonesia, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Chevron signed an MoU through its subsidiary, Chevron New Ventures Pte. Ltd, and is looking at potential businesses in new geothermal technology, carbon offsets through nature-based solutions, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), Pertamina said.

The companies would also be looking into lower carbon hydrogen development, production, storage, and transport, the statement said. ExxonMobil and Pertamina signed a joint study agreement to assess the potential for large-scale implementation of lower emissions technologies, including carbon capture and storage and hydrogen production, the U.S. company said in a statement.

The agreements were signed during a trip by Indonesian officials to attend a summit between the United States and Southeast Asian nation leaders. "Through our potential work in Indonesia, and the entire Asia Pacific region, we hope to provide affordable, reliable, ever-cleaner energy, and help the industries and customers who use our products advance their lower carbon goals," Jeff Gustavson, President of Chevron New Energies, said.

Indonesia aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2060 and has targeted to increase its renewable energy portfolio in its energy mix to 23% by 2025, from around 12% currently. "This partnership is a strategic step for Pertamina and Chevron to complement each other's strengths and develop lower carbon energy projects and solutions to promote energy independence and domestic energy security," Pertamina chief executive Nicke Widyawati said.

Pertamina is currently running a trial for a binary geothermal power plant that could help the company maximize energy output from its geothermal wells as it aims to double its geothermal capacity by around 2027-2028 from 700 MW currently.

We remind that Chevron Phillips Chemical, a joint venture of Phillips 66 and Chevron, will make a final investment decision on a new cracker in far southeast Texas in 2022, followed by an FID in 2023 on an USD8 billion joint venture petrochemical complex along the US Gulf Coast in 2023.

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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Haldor Topsoe joins pledge to increase EU electrolyser capacity

Haldor Topsoe joins pledge to increase EU electrolyser capacity

Haldor Topsoe is working to increase electrolyser manufacturing to boost renewable hydrogen production in the EU, said the company.

This is part of a joint declaration signed by the European Commission, Hydrogen Europe and 20 European companies to reach at least 17.5GW of electrolyser capacity in the EU by 2025. The declaration supports the EU’s new target to double the previous target of 10m tonnes/year of domestic renewable hydrogen production, plus an additional 10m tonnes/year of hydrogen imports.

As part of this, industry bodies committed to have 10 times the combined annual electrolyser manufacturing capacity in the EU by 2025 compared with today and legislators pledged to ensure supporting regulatory framework and funding. “If the EU wants to be independent of Russian gas – we need to produce 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen in the EU every year,” said Topsoe CEO Roeland Baan.

Under the joint declaration, manufacturers would seek to further increase capacity by 2030 in line with projected demand for renewable hydrogen. The pillars of the declaration would include a regulatory framework, funding and integrating supply chains to expand R&D activities to ensure availability of necessary components and materials in a timely and affordable manner.

Through the declaration, sufficient permitting rules for capacity would be provided and there would be revisions to the Renewable Energy Directive and Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation Proposal.

As MRC reported earlier, in February 2021, Haldor Topsoe and Acron Group signed a MoU with the purpose of jointly working within green technologies area. The MoU includes initiatives within joint development of technologies aimed to reduce GHG emissions (СО2 and N2O) at the existing production sites of Acron Group and development of promising projects for new products with minimum environmental impact. Acron Engineering, a Russian engineering research center, which is a part of Acron Group, will be engaged in the work.

We remind that in October 2021, Dow (Midland, Michigan), the world's petrochemical major, and Haldor Topsoe partnered to promote the circular economy. About 300 million tons of plastic waste is produced every year on a global scale. The partnership between Dow and Topsoe marks a new initiative to efficiently convert waste plastics to circular plastics, keeping them out of the environment and responsibly reclaiming their value.
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