Eastman announces new Executive Leadership appointment

Eastman Chemical Company announced that Travis Smith has been named Senior Vice President, Additives & Functional Products (AFP). Effective October 10, 2022, Smith will be assuming AFP responsibilities from Executive Vice President Lucian Boldea, who is stepping down to pursue an opportunity outside of Eastman, said the company.

“I am excited to welcome Travis to the Executive Team. Travis brings decades of business and operational experience and deep industry knowledge to our executive leadership,” said Mark Costa, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer. “He is well respected for his pragmatic approach and numerous contributions advancing Eastman’s transformation to a leading material innovation company. We are fortunate to have a deep bench of talent at Eastman, and Travis’s appointment underscores our continued efforts to cultivate leaders across our organization. We look forward to benefitting from Travis’s expertise and insights as we continue to deliver on our innovation-driven growth strategy and create value for our shareholders."
Smith joined Eastman in 1992 and currently serves as Division President, Films. He has held several roles instrumental to the company’s growth and transformation, including vice president and general manager, performance films, and Asia Pacific regional business director, specialty plastics. Smith received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Tennessee and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“On behalf of the Board and management team, I want to thank Lucian for his many years of service to Eastman,” said Costa. “Lucian is a proven leader who has been instrumental in driving our transformational strategy forward. We are grateful for his outstanding leadership, especially during these last several years of unprecedented global challenges. I know Lucian will do well in his future endeavors, and we wish him continued success."

As per MRC, Eastman announced a planned increase of its Therminol 66 heat transfer fluid manufacturing capacity in Anniston, USA. The plant expansion is expected to be complete in 2024. With the expansion of its capacity for Therminol 66, Eastman increases its production volume for this heat transfer fluid in the US by 50?%. The expansion of the company’s plant in Annistion, USA, is expected to be completed in 2024.

Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability.
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Americas Styrenics (AmSty), Houston, as signed a memorandum of understanding with The Woodlands, Texas-based Encina Development Group that enables AmSty to purchase up to 250,000 tons per year of circular feedstocks from Encina’s facilities, said the company.

Encina produces circular materials using advanced recycling technology that works at the molecular level. AmSty also has signed a formal long-term offtake agreement for the purchase of circular feedstocks from Encina’s first U.S. commercial plant in Point Township, Pennsylvania, which is expected to begin production in early 2025. These circular feedstocks will then be available for purchase as recycled-content credits, based on the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC Plus) mass-balance system.

AmSty has committed to ensure that all its polystyrene (PS) products designed for food packaging applications will contain at least 30 percent recycled content by 2030, according to a news release from AmSty.

“This new collaboration is vital to helping AmSty meet that goal and demonstrates our total commitment to a sustainable future across all of our market segments,” says Randy Pogue, AmSty president and CEO.

Tim Barnette, vice president of polymers and sustainability at AmSty, says this new agreement with Encina allows companies across AmSty’s portfolio to offer recyclable, sustainable products. “Now is the time for market leaders to join forces with us to commit to introducing circular polystyrene products at scale,” Barnette says. “We have been working diligently toward this moment and are now ready to move forward commercializing PolyRenew credits in a big way.”

Encina plans to continue to build commercial plants across the U.S. As the company continues to bring more facilities online, AmSty says it plans to enter into additional offtake agreements to purchase circular feedstocks from those facilities.

According to AmSty, both companies have received the ISCC Plus designation, which ensures the sustainability characteristics claimed by the companies are credibly validated.

We remind, Americas Styrenics (AmSty, Woodlands, Texas), the largest polystyrene producer in the Americas, and Agilyx Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilyx AS, a pioneer in the advanced recycling of post-use plastics, have announced an agreement to explore the development of a jointly owned advanced recycling facility. The initial scope of this project will be a 50 to 100 ton per day advanced recycling facility located at AmSty’s Styrene production facility in St. James, Louisiana.
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BP said on Wednesday two of its staff were killed after sustaining injuries in a fire at its 150,800 barrel-per-day Toledo, Ohio, refinery, said Reuters.

"The fire was extinguished last night and refinery was safely shut down and remains offline," a company spokesperson said.

"All other staff is accounted for and our employee assistance team is on site."

The cause of the fire is not known, but leaking fumes from a crude unit may have caused the ignition in another unit at the facility, a source told Reuters.

Workers finished a maintenance turnaround at the facility in recent weeks and the plant had resumed operating, according to the source.

In August, Cenovus said it would buy the remaining 50% stake it does not already own in the BP-Husky Toledo Refinery. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022.

In 2008, Husky Energy Inc formed a joint venture with BP by acquiring a 50% stake in the Toledo refinery. The stake then moved to Calgary-based Cenovus when it combined with Husky in 2021.

We remind, BP Plc restarted the largest crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 435,000 bpd Whiting, Indiana, refinery.
BP restarted the 250,000-bpd Pipestill 12 CDU as part of restoring production at the Whiting refinery following an Aug. 24 fire, which idled key utilities forcing the entire plant to shut down.
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W. R. Grace & Co. (Grace) the leading independent supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) technology, has received a commitment from PT Kilang Pertamina International (PT KPI) to use Grace’s UNIPOL PP technology, which is part of its larger initiative, the Trans-Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI) Olefin Complex Development Project in Indonesia, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This project will empower PT KPI to increase refinery and polyolefin capacity by addressing the gap between strong demand growth of petrochemicals and the shortage in domestic production capacity.

The 600,000 tpy polypropylene plant will be designed to produce homopolymers, random and impact copolymers to cover domestic and international market needs.

Laura Schwinn, President of Grace’s Specialty Catalysts business said, “We thank PT KPI for trusting Grace UNIPOL PP technology to deliver the technology, innovation and services that PT KPI will use to grow and enhance the polymer market in Indonesia and beyond. As a member of the UNIPOL PP technology global community, through the PPartner Program, they can gain access to services and knowledge for the lifetime of the plant to enhance efficiency and performance."

As MRC reported previously, W. R. Grace & Co., has recently awarded Oriental Energy a UNIPOL polypropylene (PP) process license for its Maoming plant in China. This is Oriental Energy's fifth PP production line and its fourth, which uses the Grace UNIPOL PP process with a production capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year.
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Air Products announced plans to start construction of a second hydrogen liquefaction plant in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said the company.

This new source is in addition to the company's existing liquid hydrogen plant in Botlek, the Netherlands. Once operational in 2025, the plant will double Europe's total current liquid hydrogen capacity.

Liquid hydrogen produced at the plant will be used to supply increased demands from high tech industries as well as the mobility market. It will contribute to the decarbonisation of heavy-duty vehicles on Europe's path to climate neutrality by 2050.

Air Products is committed to contribute to the role of hydrogen in the energy transition. This project is an important milestone and a great addition to Air Products' hydrogen capabilities in Europe.

We remind, Imperial Oil has announced a long-term contract with Air Products which will supply low-carbon hydrogen for its proposed renewable diesel complex at its Strathcona refinery near Edmonton, Alberta. Air Products will provide pipeline supply from its hydrogen plant under construction in Edmonton and increasing overall investment in the facility to CAD$1.6bn to support the contract.

Air Products is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for 80 years. Focused on serving energy, environment and emerging markets, the Company provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food and beverage. Air Products is also the global leader in the supply of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment. The Company develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world's largest industrial gas projects, including: gasification projects that sustainably convert abundant natural resources into syngas for the production of high-value power, fuels and chemicals; carbon capture projects; and world-scale carbon-free hydrogen projects supporting global transportation and the energy transition.
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