Synpet Tech plans to open a waste recycling plant in Belgium by 2024

Synpet Tech plans to open a waste recycling plant in Belgium by 2024

Synpet Technologies wants to build a plastic waste recycling plant in Genk, it announced in a press release. The unit is expected to be operational in 2024 and employ around 70 people, said Chemicalrecycling.

Synpet has been working on its plastic waste recycling process since 2014. All waste containing carbon is targeted, including dirty non-recyclable plastics.

Concretely, the plastic is transformed into synthetic naphtha (normally a derivative of petroleum), which can be used to produce new plastic materials. Additionally, the process also produces natural gas, biochar, and liquid organic fertilizer.

In 2016, Synpet set up a small pilot plant in Istanbul. The company now wants to build a commercial factory in Belgium.

The plant will be located in Genk and will have the capacity to process some 180,000 tonnes of plastic per year. This is an investment of 90 million euros, the financing of which is almost complete. Depending on permit applications and construction work, the plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2024.

In addition, Synpet is already considering a second factory in Belgium. Finally, Synpet also plans to eventually transfer its research and development site from Turkey to Belgium. This would create additional jobs in Genk.

We remind, Indaver has started building a new facility for recycling end-of-life plastics into valuable basic chemicals for the industry. This Plastics2Chemicals facility will recycle approximately 65,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastics and will thus become the first and largest fully-industrial plant on an EU scale. The foundation stone was laid in September 2022. Start-up is scheduled for early 2024 with an initial capacity of 26,000 tonnes. This will be scaled up to run at full capacity from 2027 onwards. The new facility will provide direct employment for approximately 50 people.
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EU clears Celanese to buy DuPont unit on divestment condition

EU clears Celanese to buy DuPont unit on divestment condition

The European Commission has approved the proposed USD11 billion acquisition of Dupont's mobility and materials business by U.S. chemicals company Celanese Corp (CE.N), on the condition that the latter divests a plastics-producing business, said Reuters.

Celanese announced the deal in February but had to offer remedies to address EU antitrust concerns. The combined entity would have been the largest producer of thermoplastic copolyester (TPC) in the European Economic Area and globally, with only a few alternative suppliers remaining. The product is primarily used by automakers.

The EU approval is conditional on Celanese divesting its global TPC business, including its production facility in Italy and certain brands. Celanese has proposed selling the business to Italian engineering plastics producer Taro Plast S.p.a.

“The commitments offered by Celanese, divesting a stand-alone business, fully remove our competition concerns as they ensure that a player will remain in the market,” the Commission’s competition policy head Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

We remind, in February 18, 2022 DuPont announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with Celanese Corporation to divest a majority of the Mobility & Materials segment including the Engineering Polymers business line and select product lines within the Performance Resins and Advanced Solutions business lines for USD11.0 billion in cash, subject to customary transaction adjustments in accordance with the definitive agreement, which represents an enterprise value multiple of ~14x 2021 operating EBITDA.
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Uniper hires Technip Energies for H2Maasvlakte work

Uniper hires Technip Energies for H2Maasvlakte work

Uniper and Technip Energies have signed an agreement that awards the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study contract to Technip for the company’s H2Maasvlakte project, Uniper announced.

“As part of the FEED scope of work, a multidisciplinary team from Technip Energies will deliver the full FEED package, including a design for a large-scale water electrolysis system, the balance of plant as well as site integration,” The press release said. The contract will be “starting immediately,” Uniper said in the press release.

Uniper said that the H2Maasvlakte project was its “flagship hydrogen project” and the company is expecting to realise 100MW of electrolyser capacity for the production of renewable hydrogen by 2025. The project aims to gradually scale-up to a total electrolysis capacity of 500MW for renewable hydrogen by 2030 — the Dutch Government has set targets of building 500MW of electrolyser capacity by 2025 and 3-4GW by 2030.

Electricity for hydrogen production at Maasvlakte is due to be sourced from offshore wind developments, which according to Uniper, will have a capacity of some 7.4GW. In mid-September, Siemens and Shell announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for collaboration on developing low-carbon and highly efficient solutions that support hydrogen production, with Shell citing specifically its Holland Hydrogen 1 (HH1) project in Maasvlakte with 200MW of electrolyser capacity — equivalent to about 0.73TWh/year of renewable hydrogen, ICIS data showed.

Maasvlakte, located near Rotterdam in the Netherlands, is home to “current and future customers from the chemical, energy, and petrochemical industry."

We remind, Technip Energies has been selected by PTTEP HK Offshore Ltd. to perform the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of the Lang Lebah Onshore Gas Plant 2 (OGP2) project located in Bintulu, Sarawak, in Malaysia. The FEED contract covers the design of an onshore gas plant including the integrated flow assurance of the native CO2 capture, compression and transportation via pipeline up to the offshore wellhead platform where it will be reinjected.
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OMV Petrom to build a new unit of aromatic products at Petrobrazi refinery

OMV Petrom to build a new unit of aromatic products at Petrobrazi refinery

OMV Petrom, the largest integrated energy company in South-Eastern Europe, invests approximately EUR 130 million in the next 3 years to build a new unit of aromatic products at Petrobrazi refinery, said the company.

The unit will function at modern BAT (Best Available Technology) operating standards with low environmental impact. The processing capacity of the new unit is about 1,500 tons/day of reformed gasoline.

Radu Caprau, member of the OMV Petrom Executive Board responsible for the Refining and Marketing activity: "The demand for gasoline continues to be robust in Southeastern Europe. In parallel with the development of our offer for alternative mobility products, we want to provide our customers with the products they need, at high environmental standards. Other significant investments will follow at Petrobrazi, both in the technological efficiency of the refinery as well as in the production of second-generation biofuels."

The process of replacing the existing aromatic products unit will be carried out between 2023 and 2025. The aromatic products unit currently functioning at Petrobrazi Refinery was put into production in 1961. This is the only facility within a Romanian refinery that can ensure gasoline at European standards.

The new unit of aromatic products will be put into operation in 2026. It will ensure continuity of production of gasoline with a volumetric benzene content of less than 1%, according to current European standards. At the same time, a larger amount of toluene will be possible to be obtained from the process of gasoline production. Toluene can be used to obtain commercial gasoline with improved octane number, but it can also be used as a solvent in the chemical industry to obtain paints, adhesives or in processes of obtaining leather products.

The Petrobrazi refinery has a total crude oil processing capacity of 4.5 million tons per year. Since 2005, OMV Petrom has invested over EUR 1.8 billion in the refinery, with a third of this investment contributing to reducing the environmental impact.

We remind, OMV, the integrated, international oil, gas and petrochemicals company headquartered in Vienna, Austria, will invest around EUR200 million (USD244 million) in biofuel production at the Schwechat Refinery in Austria.
OMV is currently investing in the Schwechat Refinery so it will be able to substitute large quantities of fossil diesel with biodiesel in an innovative co-processing approach.

OMV Petrom is the largest integrated energy company in South-Eastern Europe, with an annual Group hydrocarbon production of approximately 47 million boe in 2021. The Group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons annually and operates an 860 MW high-efficiency power plant. The Group is present on the oil products retail market in Romania and neighboring countries through approximately 790 filling stations under two brands – OMV and Petrom.
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BASF Group releases preliminary figures for the third quarter of 2022

BASF Group releases preliminary figures for the third quarter of 2022

BASF has released preliminary figures for the third quarter of 2022. Sales, income from operations (EBIT) before special items and EBIT are slightly above average analyst estimates, said the company.

Net income of BASF Group is expected to amount to EUR909 million. This is considerably below the prior-year quarter figure (Q3 2021: EUR1,253 million) and the average analyst estimates for the third quarter of 2022 ( EUR1,105 million). Net income contains non-cash-effective impairments on the shareholding in Wintershall Dea in the amount of about EUR740 million. These result from the partial write-down of Wintershall Dea’s participation in Nord Stream AG, which operates the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Sales increased by 12 percent in the third quarter of 2022 to EUR21,946 million (Q3 2021: EUR19,669 million). This was mainly driven by higher prices. Currency effects, primarily relating to the U.S. dollar, had a positive effect as well. Volumes declined compared with the prior-year quarter. Sales thus slightly exceeded average analyst estimates for the third quarter of 2022 (Vara: EUR21,076 million).

EBIT before special items amounted to an expected €1,348 million in the third quarter of 2022, considerably below the level of the prior-year quarter (Q3 2021: EUR1,865 million) and slightly above the analyst consensus for the third quarter of 2022 (Vara: EUR1,313 million). Increased prices for raw materials and energy could only partly be passed on through higher selling prices.

EBIT amounted to an expected EUR1,294 million in the third quarter of 2022, considerably below the figure for the prior-year quarter (Q3 2021: EUR1,822 million) and slightly above the analyst consensus for the third quarter of 2022 (Vara: EUR1,285 million).

The outlook published by the BASF Group for the 2022 business year in July remains unchanged. EBIT before special items continues to be expected between EUR6.8 billion and EUR7.2 billion.

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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