LyondellBasell joins NEXTLOOPP

LyondellBasell has joined the NEXTLOOPP initiative that brings more than 40 major industry players together. Launched in October 2020, NEXTLOOPP aims to create circular food-grade recycled polypropylene (FGrPP) from post-consumer packaging, said Interplasinsights.

Richard Roudeix, Senior Vice President Olefins & Polyolefins EMEAI at LyondellBasell said: “To unlock the full value of plastics, critical gaps must be addressed so these valuable resources can be circulated back into the economy after use. The development of innovative, new solutions and the increase of recycling rates is key to addressing plastic waste and climate change. In the area of post-consumer polypropylene for food packaging, we are eager to join and support the research of the NEXTLOOPP project, together with other industry players, to help find new solutions."

Polypropylene is the most widely used plastic in food packaging. NEXTLOOPP is able to close the loop by using a combination of cutting-edge technologies, developed by Nextek Ltd. It does this by separating food-grade PP and by decontaminating the polymer to ensure compliance with food-grade standards in the UK, EU and the US.

Following outstanding results of its innovative tracer-based sorting trials, Nextek recently started production trials of food-grade compliant recycled PP, making over 60 different products from NEXTLOOPP's four grades of PPristine food compliant and INRT rPP grade resins.

Professor Edward Kosior, founder and CEO of Nextek Ltd and NEXTLOOPP added: “We are delighted to welcome LyondellBasell to our project. As we continue to build momentum, LyondellBasell’s expertise on delivering technologies that advance solutions to our world’s biggest challenges will be key."

As per MRC, LyondellBasell's sprawling chemical plant in Channelview may get even bigger. The international chemical giant, operated out of Houston, said it is evaluating an expansion to potentially boost the Channelview plant's ethylene capacity by 550 million pounds per year. Preliminary engineering work has begun to determine the feasibility of the project. If LyondellBasell decides to proceed, the expansion could be finished by 2017.
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Shell plc made the following statement after the Dutch Public Prosecutor's office announced it had dismissed its investigation into bribery allegations related to Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 in Nigeria, said the company.

"We welcome today’s decision, which marks an end to the criminal investigation in The Netherlands. It follows the Milan Public Prosecutor’s appeal withdrawal earlier this week, which ended all criminal proceedings and confirmed the Milan Tribunal’s decision to acquit Shell and four of our former employees in March 2021.

"The Milan Public Prosecutor acknowledged that there was no evidence of a corrupt agreement or corrupt payments, that this case should end because it has no foundations, and that the defendants have the right to see the end of criminal proceedings, having endured seven years of suffering.

"Today’s dismissal underscores what we have long maintained – that there was no case to answer for Shell or its former employees regarding the 2011 OPL 245 settlement, and that this case should have never been brought."

As per MRC, Shell is considering boosting shareholder returns on the back of bumper profits from soaring energy prices, while the extra cash will also help it shift more swiftly towards renewables and low-carbon energy. Europe's largest oil and gas company, as well as rivals including BP, have seen profits surge this year following two years of declining revenues due to the pandemic. CEO Ben van Beurden and Shell's board have been deliberating for months over what to do with the unexpected profit bonanza that began with the recovery from the pandemic and which was then spurred on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As per MRC, Shell said surging demand for oil products that had almost tripled refining profits in the second quarter would boost earnings by up to USD1.2 bn. In an update before second quarter results on July 28, Shell also said it would reverse up to USD4.5 B in writedowns on oil and gas assets after it raised its energy prices outlook following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Earnings from oil and refined products trading were expected to be strong in the quarter but lower than the first quarter of 2022, Shell said.
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Dow and Nexus Circular announced today that they have signed a detailed letter of intent (LOI) for Dow to secure the production output of a newly constructed advanced recycling facility in Dallas, Texas, said the company.

The new facility will process and convert over 26,000 MTs annually of previously non-recycled plastic into circular feedstock that will be delivered back to Dow as a raw material to create new, recycled plastics for food-contact, health, hygiene, and fitness applications.

The LOI builds on Dow and Nexus Circular’s initial joint effort as the chosen advanced recycler for the Hefty EnergyBag® program, launched in collaboration between Dow, Reynolds Consumer Products and others, to collect hard-to-recycle plastics at residential curbside to convert them into valued resources. The announcement marks an evolution of the companies’ deepening relationship, from converting hard-to-recycle plastics into energy, to now converting circular feedstock into actual plastic products, making the converted material truly circular.

Nexus Circular is a commercial leader in advanced recycling that uses a proprietary process and pyrolysis (high temperature decomposition) technology to transform waste plastics into high-quality circular feedstocks its partners use in the production of circular polymers. Nexus Circular has optimized the technology to create a highly efficient, economic, commercial and scalable system for delivering cost-effective, high quality and environmentally friendly circular products for its partners and customers. In 2020, Nexus Circular was named a grant recipient of Dow’s Business Impact Fund for the development of pre-processing to incorporate post-consumer, hard-to-recycle plastics collected through the Hefty® EnergyBag program in Cobb County, GA.

This current expansion of the Dow-Nexus collaboration into Dallas, among other locations, will result in the further collection and conversion of landfill-bound plastics into plastic products that will be used in consumer applications, in order to help close the used plastics loop. The program builds on the impact of the Hefty® EnergyBag® which has diverted over 1,800 tons of hard-to-recycle plastics from landfills to date.

As per MRC, Dow and Mura Technology have announced plans to build multiple advanced recycling facilities in the US and Europe, which the companies say could add as much as 600 kilotons (KT) of aggregate advanced recycling capacity by 2030 and will apparently enable the HydroPRS technology to be scaled globally.
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LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea) has started to export its first bio-balanced phenol and acetone, said Chemengonline.

It is a product that has acquired the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification PLUS (ISCC PLUS), a global sustainable eco-friendly material certification, using renewable bio-feedstock such as biomass or waste cooking oil. LG Chem will export 4,000 tons of phenol and 1,200 tons of acetone, totaling 5,200 tons, and this is the largest volume of ISCC PLUS certified product ever exported from South Korea.

Phenol is the raw material for the initial process of polycarbonate, a highly-functional engineering plastic for making vehicle parts, and resins produced from phenols are also partially used as parts of electrical and electronic products and construction materials such as insulators.

Acetone has excellent solubility and is mainly used for solvent production such as cleaning agents, and paint thinner while being widely used across the industry as a raw material for building materials such as artificial marble(MMA).

Phenol and acetone from LG Chem Daesan plant will be exported to factories in China and Thailand of Germany’s leading producer of renewable polymers for making polycarbonate, a highly-functional plastics, using bio-balanced chemicals.

Since LG Chem first started to export bio-balanced SAP(Super Absorbent Polymer) in August last year, the Company has launched 41 products certified by ISCC PLUS, including PO(Poly Olefin), ABS(Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), PVC(Poly Vinyl Chloride), NPG(Neo Pentyl Glycol), phenol, acetone etc., accelerating the development of new markets and customers.

LG Chem expects that its eco-friendly product business, which has obtained ISCC PLUS certification, will continue to expand in global markets including Europe and the U.S. amid growing needs and demand from customers who want to produce bio-balanced products to lead global ESG trends.

“We will continue to expand our portfolio of bio-balanced products in earnest to meet our customers’ needs, leading eco-friendly market based on sustainable solutions,” said Noh Kug-lae, head of Petrochemical Business at LG Chem.

As per MRC, LG Chem Ltd., South Korean petrochemical major, has reported its 2021 net profit of 3.95 trillion won (USD3.3 billion), up 479.4% from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that operating income for the year rose 178.4% on-year to 5.02 trillion won. LG Chem's annual revenue increased by 41.9% to 42.65 trillion won.

As MRC reported before, LG Chem plans to shut down its naphtha cracker in the Korean city of Yeosu for a scheduled turnaround this year. Thus, LG Chem is expected to put its Yeosu naphtha cracker under scheduled maintenance sometime in the second half of 2022. LG Chem's Yeosu naphtha cracker can produce 1.16 MMtpy of ethylene.

LG Chem Ltd., often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It has eight domestic factories and global network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. LG Chem is a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of petrochemical goods, IT&E Materials and Energy Solutions.
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India's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 46.3% jump in profit for the June-quarter, as cheaper Russian crude and strong demand for fuel boosted refining margin at its dominant oil-to-chemical business, said Timesofindia.

The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate said consolidated profit rose to 179.55 billion rupees (USD2.25 billion) in the three months ended June 30 compared with 122.73 billion rupees a year earlier.

The refining-to-retail conglomerate saw a 55% rise in revenue to 2.23 trillion rupees compared to the same period last year. Total costs surged 51% to 1.98 trillion rupees with raw material costs rising 76% during the quarter, the filing said.

In Reliance’s polymers business unit, demand in India improved by 9% YOY during the quarter with increased economic activity, and was 8% above pre-pandemic levels with domestic markets seeing healthy demand from sectors such as agriculture, consumer durables, automotive, e-commerce, food packaging, and infrastructure, says the company.

Reliance’s polyethylene (PE) margin averaged $415/metric ton during the fiscal first quarter against USD508/metric ton in the prior-year quarter. Reliance says that naphtha prices averaged $827/metric ton, up 39% YOY.

The polypropylene (PP) margin averaged USD421/metric ton compared with USD652/metric ton a year earlier. Higher feedstock prices weakened the margin, Reliance says. The polyvinyl chloride (PVC) margin averaged USD576/metric ton in the fiscal first quarter against USD689/metric ton a year earlier. The company says the margin decline was led by a reduction in PVC prices and a sharp increase in naphtha costs. Logistics constraints, higher ocean freight costs, and regional availability constraints continue to support domestic prices, Reliance says.

As MRC informed before, in November 2021, Reliance Industries and Saudi Aramco decided to re-evaluate their agreement for the Middle Eastern producer to buy a stake in the refining and petrochemical business of India's biggest private refiner, and both companies would look at broader areas of cooperation due to the changing energy scenario.

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.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company produces polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and other petrochemical products.
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