Nobian to supply caustic soda and chlorine from 100% renewable electricity

Nobian has successfully started to supply chlorine and caustic soda from 100% renewable electricity in the Netherlands and Germany, said the company.

This achievement underlines Nobian’s commitment to accelerating the supply of green products in its portfolio. The certification of Nobian’s caustic soda and chlorine by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) contributes to Nobian’s renewable energy goals, as part of its sustainability program Grow Greener Together.

Nobian will be carbon neutral by 2040, with 100% renewable energy. Building on its long-standing experience in the large-scale production of essential chemicals, the chlorine and caustic soda from 100% renewable electricity allows Nobian to reduce the carbon footprint of its customers.

Nobian’s caustic soda and chlorine are crucial to produce everyday products. Caustic soda is, for example, essential in the production of aluminum, pulp, and paper, but it is also being used in water treatment, pharmaceutical- and food processes and personal care soaps. Chlorine is an important building block for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Over 50% of European chemical production relies on this process and many chemicals, plastics and medicines depend on the use of chlorine during manufacturing.

Nobian’s caustic soda and chlorine from 100% renewable electricity are certified through an annual audit by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC). ISCC PLUS is a sustainability certification program for bio-based and circular raw materials for all markets and sectors. This certification ensures that Nobian complies with globally recognized ecological and social sustainability requirements, emission reductions and traceability.

Marco Waas, Director R&D, Technology and Sustainability at Nobian says: “This important step fits seamlessly with Nobian's sustainability program Grow Greener Together. By 2040 we will be CO2 neutral, with 100% renewable energy.” Waas added, “The ISCC PLUS certification of our caustic soda and chlorine from 100% renewable electricity underlines our commitment to accelerating our green product portfolio. We have a strong drive to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint with our green products."

Jurgen Baune, Vice President Chlor-Alkali and Managing Director at Nobian in Germany: ‘The ISCC PLUS certification of our caustic and chlorine from 100% renewable electricity strengthens Nobian’s position as a leading producer of essential chemicals. By combining our core competencies with smart cooperation and innovation, we believe we can Grow Greener Together with our partners and customers.” Baune: “Our green caustic soda and chlorine are great examples of this mission."

We remind, Nobian (formerly Nouryon), the world's largest manufacturer of paints and specialty chemicals, has declared force majeure for the supply of caustic soda and chlorine in Europe. Thus, the Nobian company announced a force majeure for the supply of caustic soda from August 30 due to high temperatures in the summer, which led to a decrease in production, mechanical breakdowns and a reduction in the supply of raw materials.

Nobian is a European market leader in the production of salt, essential chemicals, and energy for industry, varying from construction and cleaning to pharmaceuticals and water treatment. We excel in the safe and reliable provision of high-purity salt, chlor-alkali, chloromethane, and hydrogen.
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MRC) -- Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, India's second-largest oil refining and fuel retailing firm, plans to scale up its renewable energy portfolio to 10 GW by 2040 - the year it is targeting net-zero carbon emission, said Business-standard.

Addressing the company's annual shareholders' meeting, he said BPCL is diversifying and expanding into adjacent and alternate businesses, which will not only provide additional revenue streams but also offer a hedge against any decline in the oil and gas business.

"The company has identified six strategic areas - petrochemicals, gas, renewables, new businesses, that is, consumer retailing, e-mobility and upstream - which will serve as pillars of future growth and create sustainable value for all stakeholders, while the core business of refining and marketing of petroleum products continues to provide stability and funding bandwidth," said chairman Arun Kumar Singh.

This is with a view to achieving net-zero emissions by 2040, he added. In the renewable energy space, BPCL plans to scale up its portfolio from less than 50 megawatts today to 1 gigawatt (GW) by 2025 and 10 GW by 2040.

The firm has also decided to expand its reach and presence in the non-fuel business to offer consumables, durables and services by leveraging its pan-India network of over 20,000 fuel stations and more than 6,200 LPG distributors.

It is also creating highway fast charging corridors to address the range anxiety related to EVs. On a pilot basis, BPCL has adopted 900 km of the Chennai-Trichy-Madurai highway, where it has set up a recharge facility at every 100 km distance at its retail outlets along both sides of this stretch.

BPCL plans to extend this facility across 200 highway corridors with around 2,000 retail outlets in 2022-23, he said. The company has planned two new petchem projects at Bina and Kochi refineries.

"Once commissioned, these will increase the share of petrochemicals in the company's product portfolio from around 1 per cent currently to about 8 per cent," he said. In the city gas distribution segment of the natural gas business, BPCL has further expanded its footprint, acquiring licenses for 8 new Geographical Areas. With this, BPCL has licenses for developing CGD networks in 25 GAs covering 62 districts.

On an overall basis, the company has an interest in a total of 50 GAs covering 105 districts, inclusive of JVs. In the upstream space, Bharat PetroResources Ltd, a subsidiary of the company, has oil and gas assets from Brazil to Mozambique, he added.

As per MRC, HPCL commenced its Cowdung to Compressed Biogas Project at Sanchore, Rajasthan. This will be HPCL’s first project under Waste to Energy portfolio. The plant is proposed to utilize 100 Tons per day of dung to produce biogas, which can be utilized as automotive fuel. The project is proposed to be commissioned in a year’s time.

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An EPC contract worth 200?million dollars might go to Petrofac. The Tinrhert EPC2 Development Project in Algeria will provide a new Central Processing Facility (CPF) with inlet separation and decarbonization units, said Process-worldwide.

The scope of work also includes tie ins to the existing Alrar Separation and Boosting Facilities, which Petrofac originally helped deliver in 2018, along with commissioning, start-up and performance testing. When completed, the development will boost natural gas production and remove CO2 from the field’s gas reserves, within specifications for the global market, enabling further economic growth in-country.

As per MRC, Petrofac was recognised with the prestigious Best Practice Award in the ‘Omani Products and Services’ category at the Oman Society for Petroleum Services (OPAL) Awards. The award was presented by HE Salim Al Aufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals of Oman, at a ceremony held in Muscat. The award is a result of the collaboration in developing Salalah-based Dhofar Structures and Iron Industries under Petrofac’s Salalah LPG extraction project in southern Oman. It is a further recognition of our contribution to in-country value (ICV) creation, supply chain, and national workforce development.
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Worley has been awarded a project management services contract by Vertex Hydrogen for its low-carbon hydrogen production plant at Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in Ellesmere Port, UK, said Process-worldwide.

The 350 MW plant is the first in the UK to have completed front-end engineering and is expected to be one of the first large-scale and low-carbon hydrogen plants in the world. The plant will allow UK industrial businesses to transition away from fossil fuels, capturing around 600 thousand tonnes of CO2 per year. It’s also an integral part of Hynet, one of two UK Government Track 1 clusters for industrial decarbonization.

“Hydrogen has the potential to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors, and this project is essential to the decarbonization journey of the Hynet low-carbon cluster in the UK,” said Chris Gill, Vice President Low-carbon Hydrogen at Worley.

The firm’s scope will cover the inside battery limit of the production plant, and all necessary outside battery limit works. It also includes support in creating the infrastructure needed to connect to feedstocks, products, and modifications within the refinery to accept low-carbon hydrogen as a means of powering production instead of fossil fuels. The company’s UK teams will deliver the work with support from its global experts.

We remind, Corpus Christi Polymers LLC has awarded Worley construction management and general services contracts. The scope of the construction management contract includes Corpus Christi’s new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and purified tereph-thalic acid (PTA) facilities in Corpus Christi, Texas, US. The scope of the general services contract includes providing support to the installation and maintenance of the construction of temporary facilities.

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Completion of a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant being built at Kallo, Belgium, will be delayed by at least six months into the second half of 2024 after owner Borealis announced it would retender the majority of the project’s construction contracts following termination of all contracts with the main contractor IREM Group, said the company.

For large construction projects, Borealis works together with specialized construction companies. The IREM Group was in charge of 80% of the remaining construction work and the majority of average 1200 workers on the PDH construction site in Kallo. The terminated contracts for both highly specialised piping and mechanical works, as well as electrical and instrumentation works, now need to be retendered. This process will cause a substantial delay for the progress of the construction works.

Borealis has implemented these additional social controls to ensure that the remaining contractors entering the site are fully compliant with Belgian labour law: Each (sub)contractor must sign a formal binding declaration prior to start-up in which they again formally confirm to be fully compliant with applicable Belgian labour, social security and tax laws.

Each (sub)contractor must provide Borealis a list of all personnel before starting to work on the site and confirm for every individual that they are fully compliant with the applicable Belgian labour, social security and tax laws prior to start-up.

All employees and (sub)contractors are being proactively briefed and continue to be encouraged to make use of Borealis’ ethics hotline. This tool was launched in 2021 and is accessible for Borealis employees and externals and allows for ethics-related concerns to be filed in 24 languages.

“We are taking all necessary steps to ensure that the remaining contractors entering the site are fully compliant with Belgian labour law. As a first step we have terminated all contracts with our contractor IREM, who was in charge of 80% of the works on site. We have also implemented additional social controls well beyond industry standards to identify and address any potential lack of control by (sub)contractors who are not compliant,” commented Wim De Smet, Borealis Location Leader Kallo.

As per MRC, Borealis lifted the cracker products force majeure, declared on 23 June, on 9 July, following the successful restart of the cracker. A company spokesperson said the cracker was back in normal operations. Borealis (Vienna, Austria) has declared force majeure on all cracker products from its ethane-fed steam cracker at Stenungsund, Sweden, after encountering technical difficulties during a restart of the facility following a maintenance turnaround.

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