McDermott CB&I signs MoU with Korea Gas to support hydrogen economy

McDermott’s storage business unit, CB&I, and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore the development of large-scale liquid hydrogen storage to support Korea’s hydrogen economy roadmap, said Refiningandpetrochemicalsme.

Last year, South Korea announced plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by replacing coal-fired power generation with renewable sources and internal combustion engine vehicles with hydrogen-powered and battery-based electric vehicles, McDermott wrote in a statement.

KOGAS has grown into the largest LNG-importing company in the world and operates four LNG regasification terminals and 4,945 kilometres of natural gas pipelines in South Korea. the statement noted.

Commenting on the development, Seung Lee, executive vice president of KOGAS said: “Hydrogen has emerged as a key enabler to meet these decarbonization goals and KOGAS will play a leading role in building the infrastructure for hydrogen shipping, storage and distribution to make these ambitions a reality.”

As MRC reported earlier, McDermott plans to deliver engineering and procurement for the ethylene cracker of the Gas Chemical Complex (GCC) project. The largest polyethylene (PE) integration project in the world with China National Chemical Engineering and Construction Corporation Seven, Ltd (CC7). This agreement follows McDermott"s safe and successful delivery of the front end engineering design (FEED) and early works phases of the project. The ethane cracker project is owned by Baltic Chemical Complex LLC, (BCC) a subsidiary of RusGazDobycha, located onshore Russia in the Gulf of Finland.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MR''s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,265,290 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2021, up by 14% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

McDermott is a fully-integrated provider of engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry. Our customers trust our technology-driven approach engineered to responsibly harness and transform global energy resources into the products the world needs. From concept to commissioning, McDermott's innovative expertise and capabilities advance the next generation of global energy infrastructure Ѕempowering a brighter, more sustainable future for us all. Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott's locally-focused and globally-integrated resources include more than 30,000 employees, a diversified fleet of specialty marine construction vessels and fabrication facilities around the world.
mrchub.com

Interface Polymers Ltd. and Flexipol Ltd. have jointly won funding through a competition run by UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging challenge, said Sustainableplastics.

The ?850K grant is to finance a 24-month collaborative project entitled ‘Recycle Ready’ multi-layer barrier plastic packaging films, aimed at the development of fully recyclable LDPE multi-layer packaging suitable for upcycling into high-value applications.

The project brings together Interface Polymers’ internationally patented surface functionality Polarfin additive technology that overcomes inherent molecular level non-compatibility between polyolefins to enable them to be recycled, and Flexipol’s film technology expertise and flexible packaging manufacturing capabilities.

Using Interface Polymers’ compatibility enabling di-block copolymer additive, the project is looking to build in recyclability as an integral part of originally manufactured multi-layer domestic and commercial packaging product formulations that can be viably scaled up. The aim is to provide a new range of Recycle Ready multi-layer packaging with a recyclability classification that will allow the waste to be collected and 100% reclaimed via existing pure stream reprocessing centres instead of being incinerated or sent to a landfill. The project team is also looking to provide multi-layer barrier packaging options with a minimum of 30% recycled material that will not incur the ?200 per tonne plastic packaging tax introduced in the UK in April 2022.

The vast majority of existing multi-layer barrier plastic packaging cannot be recycled as it is classified according to ASTM D7611 RIC (resin identification code) as RIC “7” - indicating that the resin does not belong to the other types of resin defined from categories 1 to 6 (PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS). It therefore mostly ends up being incinerated or disposed of in landfills, creating a waste problem that is subject to increasing socioeconomic and legislative pressures.

We remind, Abu Dhabi-based petrochemicals company Borouge has attracted demand of USD80 billion for its initial public offering, two sources told Reuters, as retail investors snapped up shares despite volatile global markets.
The company, which is jointly owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Austria’s Borealis, has attracted orders of USD63 billion from institutional investors, said the sources, declining to be named as the matter is not public. Borouge is due to list on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange on Friday.
mrchub.com

A new route to the production of monoethylene glycol, a key monomer in the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), has been discovered, Illinois-based biotech company LanzaTech has announced, as per Sustainableplastics.

The method builds on the carbon capture technology previously developed by the company. That technology is based on a microbial gas fermentation process that initially could convert carbon monoxide into ethanol, but today provides a sustainable pathway to produce a range of platform chemicals. Gas streams from multiple sources are used, including industrial off-gases from steel and alloy mills; petroleum refineries, petrochemical complexes and gas processing facilities; syngas generated from municipal solid waste, organic industrial waste, agricultural waste; and reformed biogas.

To produce MEG, LanzaTech uses carbon emissions from steel mills or gasified waste biomass and a proprietary engineered bacterium to convert carbon emissions directly into MEG through fermentation. This bypasses the need for an ethanol intermediate, and simplifies the MEG supply chain as it eliminates the multiple processing steps required to convert ethanol into ethylene, then ethylene oxide and then to MEG.

The direct production of MEG was proven at laboratory scale and the presence of MEG was confirmed by two external laboratories. The discovery is a breakthrough in the production of sustainable PET that has vast potential to reduce the overall environmental impact of the process, said Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech.

As per MRC, Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone), a global leader in tires and sustainable mobility solutions, today announced an exclusive partnership with Carbon Capture and Transformation (CCT) company, LanzaTech NZ, Inc. (LanzaTech) to address end-of-life tire waste. The two companies will co-develop the first dedicated end-of-life tire recycling process leveraging LanzaTech's proprietary CCT technology, creating a pathway toward tire material circularity and the decarbonization of new tire production.
mrchub.com

JGC Corporation and JGC Arabia have been jointly awarded a pair of contracts by Saudi Aramco for the Zuluf oil and gas field development megaproject, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Indrajit Sen, Oil & Gas Editor at GlobalData’s MEED, offers his view: “The Zuluf production increment project is of critical importance to Saudi Aramco in its quest of attaining a maximum oil production capacity of 13 MMbpd by 2027. Aramco has allocated a capital expenditure (capex) budget of USD40 billion to USD50 billion for 2022, and spending on the Zuluf EPC contracts accounts for a major chunk of this capex plan.

“By winning the two main onshore EPC packages, JGC has emerged as the single largest contractor on the Zuluf megaproject, with the combined value of its contracts estimated to be more than USD3 billion.

“With Aramco looking to increase its investments towards oil, gas, refining and petrochemicals production capacities, the Japanese contractor, which has a considerable track record of EPC project execution in Saudi Arabia, has positioned itself as a partner of choice for more key project contracts."

As per MRC, JGC Holdings Corporation announced the launch of a joint research and development (R&D) program with Bridgestone Corporation, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tohoku University, and ENEOS Corporation. This program is aimed at developing chemical recycling technologies that utilize used tires to achieve high-yield production of isoprene, a raw material for synthetic rubber. By combining the expertise and technologies of industry leading companies and academic institutions, JGC Holdings and its partners are working to develop recycling technologies that will contribute to the realization of a more sustainable society and to conduct demonstrations for the social implementation of these technologies by 2030.
mrchub.com

Sky-high refining margins for diesel and gasoline in Europe and the United States, driven by a cutoff in Russian supply, has sent prices for some types of physical crude oil to all-time records according to traders, said Reuters.

The dearth of fuel in the major consuming countries just as the summer driving season in the United States kicks off has lifted asking prices near and above historic peaks for lighter and medium oil types from West Africa to the North Sea.

The sharp rises underscore a tight market and the difficulty of bringing down transport fuel costs, which have thrust inflation toward 40-year highs and triggered recession fears in the United States and some parts of Europe.

Offers for medium sweet Forcados Blend and Escravos crude from Nigeria have approached an USD8 premium compared to dated Brent, traders said, their highest ever according to Refinitiv Eikon data. The grades are easily refined into middle distillates like diesel. Qua Iboe, another type of Nigerian oil that is suitable for refining into gasoline, was on offer for an unprecedented dated Brent plus USD6.

"Nigerian crude is being supported by gasoline and distillate shortages in general in Europe and the United States," a West African crude trader said. Gasoline refining margins, also known as cracks, in Northwest Europe hit a new peak last week at just above $40 a barrel last week before edging down about USD10 - still near highs last seen in 2015, with stocks there plunging a quarter or 250,000 tons on the week.

In the North Sea, Oseberg and Ekofisk differentials are at all-time highs, traders said, partly due to reduced loadings around maintenance in the latter. Seaborne non-Russian barrels, including from Norway, imported into the Polish Baltic Sea port of Gdansk, have been on the rise as refineries in eastern Europe and Germany look for alternatives to Russian oil.

In the United States, gasoline-friendly light sweet U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose to its highest since March earlier this month. Average diesel prices in the U.S. hovered around a record of USD5.58 this month, up three quarters from last year, as the retail cost gallon of gasoline topped USD4.37 - also a record.

As per MRC, the price of Brent crude oil, the world benchmark, has increased in 2022, partly as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In addition, a strong U.S. dollar means that countries that use currencies other than the U.S. dollar pay more as crude oil prices increase. Since June 1, 2021, the Brent crude oil price has increased by 59% in U.S. dollars and by 86% in euros.

As per MRC, 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.

We remind, oil prices fell on Monday as concerns over weak economic growth in China, the world's top oil importer, overshadowed fears supply might be crimped by a potential European Union ban on Russian crude.
mrchub.com