BASF Bioenergy launches its new brand Spartec

BASF Bioenergy launches its new brand Spartec for the North American bioethanol market. With the new brand, BASF establishes a new standard for performance and service, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"The new brand Spartec demonstrates our commitment to addressing key customer needs such as improving plant performance by increasing yields, improving plant efficiency, and reducing carbon intensity," says Danielle Cusumano, Head of Bioenergy Business, BASF Enzymes.

BASF Bioenergy continuously works with customers and strategic partners to deliver sustainable solutions and develop innovative enzymes creating value for ethanol producers. The products under the new brand name are already available and in use with more products to be launched soon.

As per MRC, BASF and Brookfield have finalized a term sheet for a 25-year renewable electricity supply agreement to purchase solar and wind power for the BASF Zhanjiang Verbund site in China. Under the fixed-price agreement, Brookfield will develop and build dedicated solar and wind farms, as well as possible storage solutions to support the renewable energy demands of BASF site.

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.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, seething about fuel prices as his poll standings slip ahead of October's presidential election, has intensified his calls to shake up the board and management of state-run oil company Petrobras, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

But it will take at least 45 to 60 days to complete the necessary procedural and bureaucratic steps to install a new board and management, according to four people close to the current executive board. That would leave him just two months before the election to pressure the company to decouple its fuel prices from international market gyrations.

The right-wing Bolsonaro has deposed various Petrobras CEOs for failing to control rising fuel prices, but his hand-picked choices have ended up backing a free-market approach and opposing fuel-price controls, saying these have not worked in the past. The latest surveys show Bolsonaro now trailing by double digits in his reelection campaign.

Last week, Bolsonaro announced he was swapping out current Petrobras Chief Executive Jose Mauro Coelho after less than 40 days on the job. On Thursday, the president said any senior executives at the company for more than six months may also have to go.

The sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive political and personnel matters, said one major obstacle to the management shakeup is an April decree Bolsonaro signed himself. It requires that new board members, including his latest CEO pick, must have their credentials evaluated by a Petrobras compliance and governance committee.

Only after that assessment can Petrobras schedule an extraordinary shareholders' meeting at which board members would be replaced, the sources said. Brazilian securities law requires that a notice for such a meeting must be sent to shareholders at least 30 days in advance. Asked about the timeline, Petrobras outlined the procedural steps required to replace the current CEO, which include a shareholder vote on eight of Petrobras' 11 board seats.

Bolsonaro's press office and the Ministry of Mines and Energy did not reply to requests for comment. Current management at Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, has set domestic fuel prices following the company's stated policy of tracking global markets. Defenders of that policy have noted that Petrobras cannot cover all of Brazil's domestic fuel needs, so excessive discounts could lead to shortages.

In recent months, stubborn inflation has cut the government's approval and boosting left-wing presidential challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in opinion surveys. Bolsonaro now says he wants to start from scratch with people committed to lower prices. In practice, the process of evaluating the new candidates for the board and management has yet to begin.

As of last Friday, Petrobras had not yet received the government's new nominees to the board, nor a formal indication of Bolsonaro's new CEO pick, Economy Ministry official Caio Paes de Andrade, according to company sources.

Finding several appointees for both the board and the management team could prove a challenge. Under Brazilian administrative law, employees of public companies can in certain situations be held personally liable for decisions that trigger losses at public companies. "You can't find 15 names just like that who want to put their resume and their wealth at risk," said one of the people.

As per MRC, Petrobras said on Wednesday it has signed a deal with TSE and Toyo Engineering Corp to build a new diesel hydrotreating unit at its Paulinia refinery. The move will require USD458 million in investments and is in line with Petrobras’ 2022-2026 business plan, the company said in a securities filing. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, said the hydrotreating unit is expected to enter production in 2025.

We remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

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, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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A large fire that raged through a Nebraska chemical plant was extinguished by Tuesday morning and nearby residents who were initially evacuated were allowed to return to their homes, said Сbsnews.

Thick smoke billowed from the Nox-Crete facility just southwest of downtown Omaha that could be seen as far away Monday evening as the Elkhorn River, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the west. Battalion Chief Scott Fitzpatrick said the first call for help came shortly before 7 p.m. Monday, and firefighters who initially entered the building found a much bigger fire than they had anticipated, forcing them to retreat.

Fire crews then fought the fire from outside the building, noting the presence of chemicals and propane bottles inside. Explosions could be seen and heard as propane tanks ruptured. No injuries were reported from the fire or explosions. Officials said the smoke posed no major toxicity risks to the public. The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known.

According to its website, Nox-Crete makes a chemical coating and deactivator that keeps curing concrete from bonding to forms. It also makes liquid floor hardeners, joint fillers, curing and sealing compounds and water repellents. A woman who answered the phone at Nox-Crete headquarters Tuesday morning said the company did not have a statement.

Those living nearby were initially encouraged to shelter in place, but an alert sent just before 9 p.m. urged some residents to evacuate. The nearby Columbus Community Center was opened as a temporary shelter for evacuees.

Omaha Public Power District said more than 2,500 customers were without electricity in the neighborhoods near the fire Monday night, but power had been restored to all but a handful of customers by Tuesday morning.

As per 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. 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.
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Cresta has chosen Topsoe’s HydroFlex solution for revamping the Braya Renewable Fuels refinery in Newfoundland, Canada, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The refinery will produce up to 18,000 bpd of Renewable Diesel and SAF initially and the capacity will increase further in various stages of expansion. The startup of the site for production of renewable fuels is expected in second half of 2022.

The Braya refinery is strategically located, with world-class logistics assets, to source global feedstocks and to sell the produced renewable fuels into the United States, Canada and Europe. The refinery will be world scale – one of the top 5 largest in the world at startup. The refinery’s hydrocracker and diesel hydrotreater will be revamped to produce renewable diesel and SAF from various renewable feedstocks.

Henrik Rasmussen, Managing Director, The Americas, Topsoe, says: "We are proud to be part of this exciting refinery revamp with Cresta and to support their ambition to deliver renewable diesel and jet fuel for the local and global markets."

In November 2021, Cresta acquired a controlling interest in the Braya refinery, which before was known as North Atlantic Refining Company (NARL).

Related to the acquisition, Chris Rozzell, Managing Partner at Cresta said: "We’re proud to be associated with this new chapter for the refinery as it fully transitions from fossil fuels to the production of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel fuels that will be critical to decarbonizing the aviation and heavy transport sectors. We also applaud the concrete steps the Government of Canada is taking to meet its climate objectives, and we look forward to a collaboration to position Braya Renewable Fuels to play a vital role in boosting the country’s capacity to produce clean fuels."

With HydroFlex, customers can convert low value feedstocks into drop-in renewable jet and diesel that meets all of the globally accepted specifications for these fuels. The innovative HydroFlex process layout offers lower capital expenditure (CAPEX), but also a lower energy consumption during operation, resulting in a lower Carbon Index (CI). Topsoe’s HydroFlex can be deployed in both grassroots units and revamps for co-processing or stand-alone applications. HydroFlex is by far the most successful renewable fuels technology globally.

As per MRC, Topsoe, the global leader in decarbonization technologies, announces its intention to construct world’s largest and most advanced industrial scale electrolyzer production plant. Topsoe’s ambition is to rapidly accelerate the adoption of green solutions in particular within Power-to-X. In this field, the company has the leading technology to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as transport, chemicals, steel, and cement.

Founded in 1940, Topsoe is a global leader in developing solutions for a decarbonized world, supplying technology, catalysts, and services for worldwide energy transition.
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Sun Capital Partners, Inc., a leading private investment firm focused on defensible businesses in growing markets with tangible performance improvement opportunities, announced that an affiliate has completed the acquisition of Verona, Italy-based TENAX, a world-leading manufacturer of chemical products, abrasives and tooling for the treatment of natural stone, engineered stone and ceramic tiles, said the company.

Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed. "We are excited to apply our experience investing in the building products sector, executing buy-and-build strategies, and in partnering with founders like the Bombana family to support TENAX at this exciting juncture in its growth"

Established in 1956, TENAX’s primary industrial and R&D operations are located near Verona, Italy, with subsidiaries in the United States, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, India and China. TENAX operates in a highly-fragmented market and is the global leader in its core markets, with a broad portfolio of products and an internationally-recognized brand. The Sun Capital affiliate acquired a controlling stake in TENAX from the Bombana family who are reinvesting part of their proceeds from the sale.

To celebrate this important achievement, the Bombana family has decided to award an extraordinary bonus to its 220+ employees worldwide, who have supported TENAX’s growth over the years, demonstrating a strong devotion to the brand and the territory in which the group operates, as well as great commitment to their work.

As per MRC, Sun Capital Partners, Inc. announced that an affiliate has signed a definitive agreement to sell C&K (or “the Company”), a manufacturer of high-quality electromechanical switches, to Littelfuse, Inc, an industrial technology manufacturing company empowering a sustainable, connected, and safer world, for a total enterprise value of USD540 million. Sun Capital was advised by its European affiliate, Sun European Partners, LLP, in connection with this transaction.

Sun Capital has extensive experience in founder and family-owned businesses, as well as the Italian market, where it is currently invested in VR Group (a global leader in glass front doors for the home appliance market) and Limonta Sport (through an investment in Sports and Leisure Group). In addition, an affiliate of Sun Capital recently acquired Architectural Surfaces Group (“ASG”), a leading U.S. importer and distributor of natural stone, engineered stone and tile slabs for residential and commercial applications.
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