LyondellBasell to form waste plastics JV in Germany

LyondellBasell to form waste plastics JV in Germany

LyondellBasell and 23 Oaks Investments, Leiferde/Lower Saxony, Germany, signed an agreement to create Source One Plastics, a joint venture that will build an energy efficient, advanced plastic waste sorting and recycling facility in Germany, said the company.

Using renewable energy from wind and biomass, the new unit is designed to process the amount of plastic packaging waste generated by approximately 1.3 million German citizens per year. This waste is not recycled today and is mostly incinerated.

The Source One Plastics facility will produce processed waste that will provide a material part of the feedstock for an advanced recycling plant that LyondellBasell plans to build at its Wesseling, Germany, site. Using LyondellBasell's proprietary MoReTec technology, this plant will be the first commercial scale, single-train advanced recycling plant, designed to demonstrate its capability for further scalability. LyondellBasell already operates a semi-industrial scale MoReTec plant at its Ferrara, Italy, site.

LyondellBasell's new plant is designed to convert hard-to-recycle post-consumer plastic waste into feedstock for new plastic materials. Once in operation, it will enable recycling of most types of plastic materials such as multi-layered food packaging items or mixed plastic containers. The final investment decision on this project is scheduled for the coming months. Both projects contribute to LyondellBasell's sustainability ambition to end plastic waste in the environment.

"We are committed to supporting our customers to meet their demand for renewable and circular solutions," says Yvonne van der Laan, LyondellBasell Executive Vice President, Circular and Low Carbon Solutions. "To truly achieve a circular economy, we have to find creative solutions to meet society's needs. We are taking an important first step into the upstream side of the business to secure access to plastic waste that we will convert into new plastic materials at our advanced recycling plants. This will enable us to meet our circularity ambition and produce two million tonnes of polymers from recycled or renewable resources annually by 2030."

23 Oaks Investments is a strategic solution provider in the upcycling of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic waste with extensive experience in the plastics industry. The Source One Plastics joint venture will provide a broad portfolio of services including waste procurement, sorting, and pre-treatment to deliver feedstock suitable for producing high-quality PCR material for a range of applications.

"With our global experience at all levels of the circular economy and our extensive knowledge in all areas of the plastic recycling value chain combined with our strong hands-on approach, we feel we have right mix of competencies to make Source One Plastics a success," says Kai Hoyer, Managing Partner of 23 Oaks Investment. "Together with LyondellBasell's commitment to expand on its circular polymer product offering and its work to develop advanced recycling into an industrial scale technology, 23 Oaks can contribute its part to make this a reality."

In addition to its advanced recycling semi-industrial scale plant, LyondellBasell holds a 50% share in Quality Circular Polymers (QCP). QCP uses a mechanical recycling process to produce premium plastic pellets from post-consumer packaging waste for use in such applications as electrical appliances, washing detergent bottles and suitcases.

We remind, LyondellBasell and Genox Recycling have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a joint venture (JV) to build a plastics recycling plant in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province with a planned start up in 2023. The plastic recycling plant will use mechanical recycling technology to recycle post-consumer plastic waste and produce new polymers sold under the LyondellBasell CirculenRecover product portfolio.
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Scheduled maintenance of process units starts at Atyrau Refinery

Scheduled maintenance of process units starts at Atyrau Refinery

According to the approved preventive maintenance schedule issued by the RoK Ministry of Energy, the preventive maintenance campaign commenced at the Atyrau Refinery on 1 October 2022, said the company.

The process facility maintenance will be performed on a stage-by-stage basis. The Atyrau Refinery’s units operate according to the two-stream oil refining pattern and are shut down and started alternatively. Thus, the refinery will not be completely shut down. The refinery will continue to operate at the 50–70 % capacity during the maintenance, generating and shipping the target products.

In October to November, it is planned to refine 692,000 tonnes of oil. The average daily refining rate will be 11,347 tonnes, which corresponds to 68 % of the refinery’s design capacity. The average daily oil product generation volume will be as follows: 2,400 tonnes of motor gasoline per day, 2,600 tonnes of diesel fuel per day, 240 tonnes of jet fuel per day and 170 tonnes of liquefied gas per day.

The preventive maintenance at the Atyrau Refinery will be carried out according to the Industrial Safety Law On Civil Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan to ensure safe and reliable operation of the process, power generation, compression and dynamic equipment so as to achieve the design performance, improve the environmental parameters and inspect the automation equipment.

The following works will be performed on the units during the scheduled maintenance: catalyst change-out, internal inspection, inspection and examination of reactors, tanks and vessels, columns, heat exchangers and pipelines.

The Atyrau Refinery’s ramp-up to stable operation is also scheduled on a stage-by-stage basis by the second ten-day period of November 2022.

As a reminder, the plant maintenance was previously expected to commence in September 2022. However, in order to stabilise the situation on the fuel and lubricants market, the maintenance was postponed to 1 October 2022.
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Shares in Braskem jump after report on new Apollo bid, shareholders deny

Shares in Braskem jump after report on new Apollo bid, shareholders deny

Shares in Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem SA jumped more than 20% on Tuesday after local newspaper O Globo reported that U.S.-based asset manager Apollo made a new, higher bid for the company, as per Reuters.

According to the report, Apollo is willing to pay 50 reais per share of Braskem, which is controlled by state-run oil firm Petrobras and conglomerate Novonor, up 25% from Apollo's previous bid.

Responding to requests for comment by Reuters, Novonor and Petrobras said that they had no new information about a sale of their stakes in the firm.

Braskem shares ended up 20.4% at 33.58 reais on Tuesday, the top gainer on Brazil's Bovespa stock index, which dropped 0.96%. At its current share price, Braskem is valued at about USD4.5 B.

As per MRC, Braskem, the market leader and a pioneer in the production of biopolymers, entered into an agreement for the acquisition of shares and the subscription of new shares in Wise Plasticos S.A., a company engaged in mechanical recycling. Braskem will acquire an equity interest of 61.1% in the share capital of Wise for an estimated amount of RD121 million, part of which will be used to expand its current production capacity by two-fold to around 50,000 tons/year of recycling by 2026.

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BASF to build neopentyl glycol plant at Zhanjiang Verbund site in China

BASF to build neopentyl glycol plant at Zhanjiang Verbund site in China

BASF will invest in a new world-scale Neopentyl Glycol (NPG) plant with an annual production capacity of 80,000 metric tons at its new Zhanjiang Verbund site, China, said the company.

With the new NPG plant expected to come on stream in Q4 2025, BASF’s global NPG capacity will be boosted from 255,000 metric tons to 335,000 metric tons annually, strengthening its position as one of the world’s leading NPG manufacturers. Currently, BASF has NPG production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Freeport, Texas, United States; as well as Nanjing and Jilin, China.

Vasilios Galanos, Senior Vice President, Intermediates Asia Pacific, BASF, said, “Investing in an NPG plant at the Zhanjiang Verbund site will enable us to support the growing demand from customers in Asia, particularly in the field of powder coatings in China. Leveraging the synergies arising from our unique Verbund model and top-notch technologies, we are confident that our investment in the NPG plant will enhance our competitive edge mainly in China, the world’s largest chemical market.”

“We are responding to the growing demand of Chinese customers for environmentally friendly powder coatings. We will step up the construction of the new NPG plant to support the growth of our business partners, while expanding our footprint and sustaining our position as a leading supplier in this vast market,” added Anup Pandey, Director, Business Management, Acids & Polyalcohols, BASF Intermediates Asia Pacific.

Boasting high chemical and thermal stability, NPG is an intermediate mainly used in the production of powder coating resins, which are particularly successful in the construction industry and for coating of household appliances. Due to their low volatile organic compounds (VOC), powder coatings enable their users to comply with VOC emission standards by reducing the release of VOCs by up to 50% compared to liquid coatings. Other applications for NPG include the manufacture of lubricants, plasticizers and pharmaceuticals. For example, it is used as a building block in the synthesis of hormones, cardiovascular drugs and painkillers.

BASF and Hannong Chemicals are planning to establish a production joint venture “BASF Hannong Chemicals Solutions Ltd.” BASF will hold 51% and Hannong Chemicals 49% shareholding, in the proposed joint venture. The joint venture will combine BASF’s strong technology and product innovation capabilities with Hannong’s highly efficient production capabilities to supply best-in-class non-ionic surfactant products to BASF and Hannong Chemicals, each with their own sales and distribution network, enabling the two companies to cater for increasing market demand.
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Cepsa signs green hydrogen shipping deal with Rotterdam port

Cepsa signs green hydrogen shipping deal with Rotterdam port

Spanish oil and gas group Cepsa has signed a deal with the Dutch port of Rotterdam to ship green hydrogen from southern Spain to northern Europe, the oil company and the port said.

“Cepsa and the Port of Rotterdam are to work together to establish the first green hydrogen corridor between southern and northern Europe, ensuring a green hydrogen supply chain between two of Europe’s main ports, Rotterdam and Algeciras,” Cepsa said in the press release.

The hydrogen will be produced at Cepsa’s San Roque Energy Park near the Bay of Algeciras, and will be exported through hydrogen carriers such as ammonia or methanol to the Port of Rotterdam.

The trade lane is expected to be operational by 2027. Comparatively, first supply corridors from the European Hydrogen Backbone, a plan developed by gas transmission operators for the transport of hydrogen pipe, are due to be completed by 2030.

We remind, Cepsa, a leading international company committed to sustainable mobility and energy, and Ohmium International, a company specialized in the design, manufacture, and deployment of PEM electrolyzers, have announced an agreement to develop highly efficient green hydrogen projects in the Iberian Peninsula.

Cepsa is a Spanish petrochemical company. Full name Compania Espanola de Petroleos S.A. The company is headquartered in Madrid. Refining is one of the main activities of CEPSA. The production of asphalt and other road surfaces is another of the company's core activities; nine CEPSA factories are engaged in the production of these products.

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