Chemours and Honeywell announce recycling program

The Chemours Company, and Honeywell, announced the launch of a new pilot program to enable qualified companies to recycle and reclaim R-448A, also known as Honeywell Solstice® N40, and R-449A, also known as Opteon™ XP40, patented HFO refrigerant blends in the European Union and the United Kingdom, said the company.

In recent years, global regulatory drivers and the increasing need for a circular economy have spurred interest in activities such as recycling and reclamation of refrigerants. Chemours and Honeywell are uniquely positioned to support these activities and license qualified companies to recycle and reclaim patented fluorochemical refrigerants. The old refrigerant is cleaned, returned to specification and used for service of refrigeration systems that need it. To ensure the integrity of these operations and the safety and quality of the resulting R-448A and R-449A, important criteria have been established for potential program participants including audit requirements and strict record-keeping.

We remind, The Chemours Company (Wilmington, Del.) announced that it will be expanding its Chemours Opteon YF (HFO-1234yf) capacity to help meet customer needs as they continue transitioning to lower GWP refrigerants. The Opteon YF and YF blends refrigerants are now used in millions of vehicles and thousands of retail stores around the world, with zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and global warming potential (GWP) that is significantly lower than the legacy refrigerants.

Chemours is committed to leadership in responsible manufacturing, and this capacity investment will contribute to its goal of shifting the company’s product portfolio to offerings that contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Chemours is evaluating potential locations in the United States and Europe for the investment in accordance with applicable regulatory frameworks and is particularly interested in supporting the local communities where they operate.
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A coalition of countries will mobilize USD20 B of public and private finance to help Indonesia shut coal power plants and bring forward the sector's peak emissions date by seven years to 2030, the United States, Japan and partners said, as per Reuters.

The Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), more than a year in the making, "is probably the single largest climate finance transaction or partnership ever", a U.S. Treasury official told reporters.

The Indonesia JETP is based on last year's $8.5 B initiative to help South Africa more quickly decarbonize its power sector that was launched at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow by the United States, Britain and European Union.

To access the program's USD20 billion worth of grants and concessional loans over a three- to five-year period, Indonesia has committed to capping power sector emissions at 290 MMt by 2030, with a peak that year. The public and private sectors have pledged about half of the funds each.

Indonesia has also set a goal to reach net-zero emissions in its power sector by 2050, a decade before its current target in its national climate plan, and to double the pace of renewable energy deployment so that it accounts for at least 34% of all power generation by 2030.

"We've built a platform for cooperation that can truly transform Indonesia's power sector from coal to renewables and support significant economic growth," U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry said.

We remind, Japan's chemical exports rose by 4.8% year on year to Yen (Y) 957.3bn in September, supporting the overall rise in shipments abroad. Exports of organic chemicals fell by 1.7% year on year to Y170.9bn in September while shipments of plastic materials were up by 0.3% at Y251.7bn. On a volume basis, exports of plastic materials fell by 18% year on year to 412,012 tonnes in September.

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Oil production at the Kashagan field, which was suspended after an accident, has been fully restored, KazMunayGas head Magzum Mirzagaliyev said on Tuesday at the SPE Annual Caspian Technical Conference in Astana, said Interfax.

"We had experienced problems with Kashagan regarding a decline in oil and gas production. However, the good news is that a couple of weeks ago, Kashagan output returned to normal, and daily volumes are now at record levels," Mirzagaliev said at the conference.

Production operations halted at the Kashagan field on August 3 following a gas leak at the Bolashak oil and gas processing facilities.

North Caspian Operating Company, which operates the Kashagan field, announced in the early hours of August 10 that "gradual resumption in production" had been suspended since August 3 owing to a gas leak at the Bolashak facilities. At that time, oil output partially resumed at around 100,000 barrels per day, and to 210,000 bpd on September30.

Kazakh Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov said earlier that production at the Kashagan field would resume by the end of October.

The ministry also said that production at the Kashagan field had returned to the previous volumes as of November 6.

Kashagan is considered one of the largest fields discovered in recent decades. Its recoverable reserves range from nine billion to 13 billion barrels of oil. Commercial production at Kashagan began in the autumn of 2016.

We remind, KazMunayGas has started construction works on a new butadiene and synthetic rubber plant. The plant, estimated to cost $964m, is to be built by 2025. It would produce 66,000 tonnes/year of butadiene, 83,000 tonnes/year of synthetic rubber and 130,000 tonnes/year of isobutane. Butadiene LLP is discussing possible license agreements with Lummus, Versalis (Eni) and ETIC, according to KazMunayGas.
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Polish oil refiner PKN Orlen has submitted an application to the Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft for the supply of 3 MMt of oil to Poland through the Druzhba pipeline system in 2023 under continuing long-term contracts, said Reuters.

Transneft confirmed to Kommersant that it had received requests from consumers in Poland for the next year, but did not specify who submitted the application or the volume.

The European Union will impose an embargo on the import of Russian oil from Dec. 5, but the ban formally applies only to supplies by sea and deliveries through Druzhba are not subject to it. However, Poland and Germany, both receiving oil via the northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, have previously stated that they will stop oil imports from Russia by the end of 2022.

"PKN Orlen has consistently diversified its oil supplies. Currently 70% of oil to all the company's refineries in Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania comes from alternative directions to Russian (sic) ... The company is currently continuing only the long-term contracts for deliveries to Poland from this direction (Russia)," PKN Orlen's press office told Reuters in response to a request for comment. It added that it had stopped all Russian oil imports via sea.

PKN Orlen has oil supply contracts with Rosneft and Tatneft . The contract with Rosneft is expected to expire by year's end, while the agreement with Tatneft is valid until December 2023, according to traders. Tatneft supplies about 200,000 tonnes of crude oil per month to Poland under the agreement. Both contracts were signed prior to February 2022.

"In the absence of direct restrictions, the purchase of Urals under old contract terms is very beneficial for PKN Orlen next year: prices are based on the cost of seaborne Urals, which remains at historical lows," a trader in the Russian oil market said.

We remind, We remind, Poland’s ORLEN Group has finalised its merger with Grupa LOTOS, strengthening its leading role in the fuel and energy industry in Central and Eastern Europe. The final step in the process that has been successfully completed was the registration of the merger by the District Court of Lodz. The merger paves the way for unlocking synergies inherent in leveraging the potential of the two companies. As an immediate effect, the merger of PKN ORLEN and Grupa LOTOS will help increase capital expenditure, step up the execution of the most profitable projects, increase the country’s energy independence and ensure stable fuel supplies for all customers.
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Beijing BASF has awarded contracts to Toyo Engineering for its new large-scale petrochemical project being built at the BASF Zhanjiang Ver-bund site in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, China, said Apic-online.

The site, being built in phases, will include a stream cracker and downstream units for the production of petrochemicals and intermediates, including, among others, an ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol unit and a 60,000-t/y engineering plastics compounding unit, which was recently launched. The entire project is estimated to cost up to 10-billion and be complete by 2030.

Under the contracts, for which a value was not given, Toyo will be responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction management services for the acrylics complex, project management services for the steam cracker, central production tank farm and polyethylene projects, and project management services for the overall management of the buildup of the complex.

As per MRC, BASF posted a EUR130m loss in its German domestic market during the third quarter (Q3), as economic conditions deteriorated quickly, on the back of high production costs for chemicals companies. Martin Brudermuller added, however, that the overall increase in sales revenue in Q3 came thanks to the company’s ability to pass higher input costs onto customers through higher selling prices, as well as a weaker euro, benefiting the company in its non-euro sales.
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