Air Liquide, Fluxys Belgium and Port of Antwerp-Bruges win funding to build Antwerp CO2 Export Hub

The EU Commission announced it will grant Air Liquide, Fluxys Belgium and Port of Antwerp-Bruges GDP144.6 MM under the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF-E) funding program., said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The funding is earmarked for the construction of shared CO2 transport and export facilities on the Antwerp port platform. The grant award is a major step towards the final investment decision, expected in 2023.

The project, named "Antwerp CO2 Export Hub”, is set up as an open-access infrastructure to transport, liquefy and load CO2 onto ships for onward permanent offshore storage. CO2 captured on industrial players sites on the Antwerp port platform will be collected and transported via an intra-port open-access pipeline network. A shared liquefaction and export terminal will be built, including a CO2 liquefaction unit, buffer storages and marine loading facilities for cross-border shipping. This innovative project will be among the first and largest multimodal open access CO2 export facilities in the world.

As part of the project, Air Liquide and Fluxys intend to form a joint venture for the construction and operation of the CO2 liquefaction and export terminal. The joint venture will benefit from Air Liquide’s expertise in CO2 liquefaction and handling and from Fluxys’ experience in terminalling activities. Air Liquide will provide its proprietary technology for the CO2 liquefaction plant, which will be a first of a kind in its scale and design. The Port of Antwerp-Bruges reserved a plot of land for the terminal on a strategic location inside the port, and will build new quay infrastructures for the mooring of CO2 ships.

We remind, Air Liquide announces that it has signed an agreement to divest its business in Trinidad and Tobago to Massy Gas Products Holding Ltd. As a consequence of this divestiture, the approximately 30 employees of this business will be integrated within MGPHL. This transaction is part of Air Liquide’s strategy to regularly review its asset portfolio and focus on selected fast developing areas and activities.

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These works are part of the Refinery Development Master Plans (RDMP) launched by PT Pertamina to revitalize the Cilacap, Balongan, Dumai and Balikpapan refineries to improve their production capacity and competitiveness, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Sarens is playing a major role in these works, which will be completed in 2024, by taking responsibility for the installation of 1,300 items throughout the plant, weighing approximately 43,000 tons at the inside bounday area and 13,700 at the outside bounday area thanks to the use of eight of its cranes.

Thanks to the lifting operation of the residual fluid catalytic cracking unit (RFCC), which contains a first-stage generator weighing 1,198.9 tons and a second-stage generator weighing 902.5 tons, Sarens is now part of the heavy lifting history in Indonesia, as this regenerator is the largest unit currently in existence in the country.

The PT Pertamina (Persero) refinery in the Indonesian town of Balikpapan will increase its production of oil derivatives to 360 MMbpd once its upgrading and improvement works are completed during 2024. These works are part of the Refiney Development Master Plans (RDMP) promoted by Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company to increase the production capacity and competitiveness of five of its plants in Cilacap, Balongan, Dumai and Balikpapan.

The Balikpapan plant is currently the second largest refinery belonging to PT Pertamina, and is responsible, with approximately 260 million barrels per day produced, for 25% of Indonesia's oil & gas exploitation. Thanks to the upgrading works that are part of the company's RDPMs, this plant will not only decisively increase its production, but will also increase the added value of its products, which will become cleaner and greener to align with the Indonesian government's strategy to implement the Euro V standard in the country by 2027.

Sarens, world leader in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental, is playing a major role in these upgrades and improvements, taking responsibility for the installation of 1,300 items throughout the plant, including, among others, the residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit, which contains a first-stage regenerator weighing 1,198.9 tons and a second-stage regenerator weighing 902.5 tons. This operation, which required the use of an SGC-90 ring crane and a CC-8800-1 crawler crane, has enabled Sarens to make heavy lifting history in Indonesia, as the regenerator is the largest unit currently in existence in the country.

In total, Sarens is expected to move approximately 43,000 tons at the inside boundary area (ISBL) and 13,700 tons at the outside boundary area (OSBL), using up to eight different crane models, including, in addition to the SGC-90 ring crane and the CC-8800-1 crawler crane, units such as the CC-2800-1 or the CC-2500 and auxiliary equipment such as Goldhofers.

One of the most demanding tasks faced so far by the Sarens technical team was the need to move the SGC-90 ring crane for use on two different jobs in the plant. To do this, the Sarens team used 2x30 axle lines SPMTs (Self-Propelled Modular Transports) to transport the main deck and, when the second location was ready, the SPMTs completed their transport approximately 800 meters from the initial location. The remaining components were moved to the new location by two Goldhofer units with 10 axle lines SPMTs each, in an operation that, in total, required 32 working days.

Sarens has more than 60 years of international experience in the development and installation of strategically important projects. In the energy sector, Sarens has been recently involved in the Clean Fuel Project works in Thailand, in the lifting maneuvers of a 4,500-ton LQUP (Living Quarters and Utilities Platform) at the PTSC M&C plant in Vietnam, in the expansion of the S-Oil plant in Ulsan, South Korea, in the construction of the Petroperu refinery in Talara (Peru), and in the Skikda refinery in Algeria among others.

We remind, the Heads of Agreement builds upon a joint study and memorandum of understanding that was signed at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland to assess carbon capture and storage technologies, low-carbon hydrogen and geologic data, said the company. The agreement defines next steps for the project including concept-select, pre-Front End Engineering Design, and a subsurface work program.
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UK chemicals company Synthomer has agreed to sell its Laminates, Films and Coated Fabrics businesses to Surteco North America for a total enterprise value of about USD255m, said the company.

The divestment is in line with Synthomer’s plans to increase the weighting of specialty chemicals versus base chemicals in its portfolio and create a more balanced geographic exposure, it said. The Laminates, Films and Coated Fabrics businesses, with plants in North America and Thailand, were part of Synthomer’s acquisition of OMNOVA Solutions in 2020.

The company will use expected net proceeds of USD245m from the divestment to pay down debt. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2023, subject to Synthomer shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Surteco North America is a subsidiary Surteco Group, a Germany-based developer, designer, producer and marketer of surface materials based on paper and plastics.

As per MRC, Synthomer PLC shares tumbled as its half-year was hit by soft demand for nitrile gloves, after a record performance the year before. The Essex-based chemicals maker said pretax profit in the first half dropped 55% to GBP115.5 million from GBP254.4 million a year before. Shares in Synthomer were 11% lower at 209.64 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. This was despite growth in revenue, which was 8.5% higher at GBP1.22 billion compared to GBP1.23 billion.
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Covestro is taking another major step forward on its path to climate neutrality. The company has signed several multi-year power purchase agreements (PPA) with CGN New Energy, including one that will cover around 30 percent of the electricity needs of the important production site in Shanghai, said the company.

"Covestro aims to become climate-neutral by 2035 and is systematically converting its production worldwide to renewable energies to achieve this goal," says CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann. “On the way to achieving this, we have reached a new milestone with this agreement. At the same time, we are contributing to the further expansion of the entire market for renewable energies with our investments and our commitment.”

Under the PPA, the Covestro Integrated Site Shanghai will purchase approximately 300 gigawatt hours of green power annually from CGN's wind and solar farms in the town of Lenghu in northwest China's Qinghai province. The agreement will reduce Covestro's carbon emissions in China by around 126,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. This is equivalent to the emissions of around 60,000 gasoline-powered cars annually. The PPA is scheduled to take effect in January 2023.

"We are delighted to support leading chemical companies like Covestro in converting their production sites to renewable electricity. We look forward to our further cooperation with Covestro, and together we will also contribute to China's dual carbon targets and sustainable development," says Qi Fang, Deputy General Manager of CGN New Energy.

The Shanghai site is already partly supplied by renewable energy. For example, in 2022 alone, it is expected to use more than 300 gigawatt hours of solar power generated in northwest China.

"This new contract is a milestone in the Shanghai site's journey to net-zero emissions. We have increased energy efficiency and significantly reduced emissions over the years, and the use of green power and alternative raw materials will be a key focus as we strive for carbon-neutral production in the next decade," says Holly Lei, President of Covestro China.

We remind, Covestro is proud to announce the successful completion of Circularise’s pioneering project with the certification scheme ISCC in which partners tested a blockchain system to complement the ISCC PLUS certification.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- A major fire broke out this Friday evening, around 10:50 p.m. on the site of the petrochemical plant based in Mardyck, classified Seveso, in the industrial port of Dunkirk, said Francebleu.

Firefighters extinguished the fire overnight at 1:30 a.m. No injuries are reported.

A significant number of firefighters from the North lent a hand to the plant's own fire department, as required by procedure in this type of situation. The operation lasted from 10:50 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
We do not yet know the precise cause of the fire but Versalis speaks of " a hydrocarbon which spread and then ignited ". According to the subsidiary, there was no toxic discharge and there is no risk this Saturday of external pollution . The plant is Seveso classified , meaning that it is identified by the European Union as an industrial site at risk.

The fire did not cause any injuries but significant material damage, in particular to the metal structures. According to Versalis, the losses amount to millions of euros according to the first findings.

In September 2019, Versalis (part of Eni) took its cracker in Dunkirk, France offline due to a fire which broke out at the company’s petrochemical plant, as per NCT with reference to market sources. It is not yet known how long the unit will remain shut while the company could not be reached for comments at the time of press.

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