Phillips 66 achieves ISCC PLUS certification to turn oil from waste plastics into feedstocks

Phillips 66 achieves ISCC PLUS certification to turn oil from waste plastics into feedstocks

Phillips 66 announced it has received International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certification for its Sweeny Refinery in Texas to process oil made from waste plastics into feedstocks for new plastics, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“Phillips 66 is committed to keeping plastics out of the environment and driving toward a more circular economy where plastics packaging is reused, recycled or recovered,” said Zhanna Golodryga, Executive Vice President of Emerging Energy and Sustainability at Phillips 66. “The ISCC PLUS certification highlights the company’s resolve to create sustainable streams for waste materials and to support the growth of advanced recycling in plastics.”

ISCC is a globally applicable and industry recognized sustainability certification system that covers all sustainable feedstocks, including circular feedstocks produced from plastic waste. Its ISCC PLUS certificate covers bio-based and recycled, or circular, raw materials.

The certification for the Sweeny Refinery is the latest example of how Phillips 66 is working to play a key role in building a lower-carbon future by capitalizing on its core competencies and integrated assets.

The ISCC PLUS certification verifies the refinery meets the standards to process pyrolysis oil made from hard-to-recycle waste plastics into circular ethane, circular propane, circular propylene and other sustainable feedstocks and petrochemical building blocks. The products will be used to support polymer producers — including Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Phillips 66’s 50-50 joint venture — that are advancing a circular economy for plastics.

Chevron Phillips Chemical already produces Marlex Anew™ Circular Polyethylene at its Cedar Bayou complex in Baytown, Texas, and is targeting an annual production volume of 1 billion pounds of the circular polymer by 2030.

Sweeny Refinery, which is located in Old Ocean, Texas, on the Gulf Coast, is the second Phillips 66 refinery to achieve an ISCC PLUS certification and the first for the processing of waste plastic pyrolysis oil into circular feedstocks. Its Humber Refinery in the U.K. is ISCC PLUS certified to process used cooking oil, food waste and other circular feedstocks.

We remind, QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC announced they will proceed on construction of a USD6 B integrated polymers complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. An agreement marking the positive final investment decision for the project was signed by His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, and by Bruce Chinn, President and CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical, at a ceremony in Doha. The companies created a joint venture, Ras Laffan Petrochemicals, in which QatarEnergy owns a 70% equity share and Chevron Phillips Chemical owns 30%.

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Air Liquide and Sasol sign first long-term contracts for supply of renewable energy to the Secunda site

Air Liquide and Sasol sign first long-term contracts for supply of renewable energy to the Secunda site

Air Liquide and Sasol have signed two Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) with Enel Green Power for the long-term supply of a total capacity of 220 MW of renewable power to Sasol’s Secunda site, in South Africa, where Air Liquide operates the biggest oxygen production site in the world, said the company.

These PPAs are the first results of the Request for Proposal (RFP) process launched jointly by Air Liquide and Sasol in April, 2021, for the procurement of a total capacity of 900 MW of renewable energy. They will significantly contribute to the decarbonization of the Secunda site, and in particular to the targeted reduction by 30 % to 40 % of the CO2 emissions associated with the oxygen production by 2031.

Within the framework of these agreements with Air Liquide and Sasol, two local majority owned wind projects will be created by Enel Green Power, the Enel Group subsidiary dedicated to the development and management of power generated from renewable resources worldwide. The 220 MW wind powered renewable electricity production capacity is scheduled to be operational in 2025. This agreement is subject to regulatory and financial approvals.

In April 2021, Air Liquide and Sasol launched the largest corporate effort in South Africa to procure a total of 900 MW of renewable energy for their operations in Secunda, with an allocation of 500 MW to Sasol and 400 MW to Air Liquide. The two companies are negotiating with the remaining preferred bidders to this RFP to complete the balance of the renewable energy requested within the coming months.

We remind, Sasol announced that its world-scale U.S. ethane cracker has reached beneficial operation on 27 August 2019. Sasol’s new cracker, the heart of its Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP), is the third and most significant of the seven LCCP facilities to come online and will provide feedstock to six new derivative units at Sasol’s Lake Charles multi-asset site.

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Tesco to launch recycled plastic trays for fresh fish products

Tesco to launch recycled plastic trays for fresh fish products

UK-based supermarket chain Tesco has revealed plans to package its fresh fish in trays made using recycled plastic waste, said Packaging-gateway.

From next week, the retailer will introduce trays with at least 30% recycled coastal plastic content for its fresh fish lines, including Salmon, Haddock, Cod and Sea Bass. The plastic waste consists of polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and other types of plastic.

It is collected from beaches, coastlines and coastal communities within 10km of the Mediterranean Sea. The move is expected to reduce Tesco‘s use of virgin plastic in its packaging while removing around 500t of plastic from the environment a year.

Tesco quality director Sarah Bradbury said: “Where we can, we are reducing the amount of new plastic we use in our business. “Re-using coastal plastic in our fish packaging is one way we can do that and at the same time keep it out of the oceans.”

Tesco said its collection and processing of plastic waste is certified by non-profit organisation Keep Sea Blue and undertaken with full transparency and traceability. The retailer sorts PET from the plastic recovered by collectors before recycling it into food-grade packaging materials.

To ensure materials can be traced, it uses a customised blockchain platform powered by Oracle Blockchain technology. Keep Sea Blue founder Lefteris Bastakis said: “Mismanaged plastic waste can only be solved by many partners working together.

“We are glad that Tesco is making a meaningful and active contribution to this programme towards protecting the Mediterranean Sea from plastic pollution and building a more sustainable future.” In September last year, Tesco began trialling the sale of cardboard box-free toothpaste at its UK stores.

The trial has involved major toothpaste brands such as Colgate, Oral B, Sensodyne, Aquafresh and Corsadyl. It is expected to eliminate 680t of cardboard from Tesco’s operations a year.

We remind, Tesco has announced it will start collecting flexible plastics packaging at all of its large stores nationwide after a successful trial earlier in the year. The supermarket first trialled in-store collections for soft and flexible plastics at ten stores in 2020, during which customers returned more than ten times the expected amount of plastic.
Then, this March, Tesco began adding the recycling points to 171 stores across Wales and the South West of England.

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New innovations for rigid medical packaging spring from collaboration between Eastman and Exolon Group

New innovations for rigid medical packaging spring from collaboration between Eastman and Exolon Group

Specialty materials provider Eastman and Exolon Group have started a collaboration for the extrusion of solid sheet materials based on Eastman’s healthcare copolyester resins, said Nspackaging.

Made using Eastar 6763, Vivak Med answers the increasing demand for thermoplastic solid sheet products and meets ISO 10993/USP Class VI biocompatibility requirements.

Vivak Med heavy gauge sheet for rigid medical packaging from the Exolon Group is extruded using Eastar 6763. The product is available in thicknesses from 0.6 to 8 millimeters.

“Eastar 6763 has been the standard for decades in rigid medical packaging applications,” says Michael Burkardt, Eastman’s business development manager, specialty plastics. “For Eastman, it is crucial to team up with renowned partners like Exolon Group, who have the industry experience and expertise needed to deliver superior value to their customers."

“With this collaboration and the development of Vivak Med as an expansion of our Vivak portfolio, we’re proving our commitment to innovation and our desire to enter new markets,” says Wim Van Eynde, head of product management at Exolon Group. “The medical packaging industry will now have access to thicker and wider sheet material than ever before. Eastman medical-grade materials offer several advantages such as reduced material usage and freedom from substances of concern compared to other materials like high-impact polystyrene. We’re very excited about the possibilities of Vivak Med."

As per MRC, US-based Eastman aims to light a fire under the ecosystem for collecting hard-to-recycle polyester waste with USD2bn in new investments for plastics recycling projects in the US and France.

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Holiferm and Sasol Chemicals expand collaboration to develop and market sustainable surfactants

Holiferm and Sasol Chemicals expand collaboration to develop and market sustainable surfactants

Holiferm Limited and Sasol Chemicals, a business unit of Sasol Ltd., announced a collaboration to produce and market rhamnolipids and mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs), said the company.

This collaboration expands the partnership announced in March 2022 between the two companies to develop and commercialise another biosurfactant product, sophorolipids. The partnership will use Holiferm’s proprietary technology to develop the fermentation-derived biosurfactants. Sasol and Holiferm will develop and commercialise formulations and applications for the new molecules.

Biosurfactants use natural materials to produce surfactants, which are key ingredients in detergents, cleaning products and personal care products. Sophorolipids, rhamnolipids and MELs are all glycolipids made through fermentation, using yeast or bacteria to convert vegetable oils and/or sugars into final product. The Holiferm process offers an extensive reduction in carbon footprint compared with conventional surfactants.

“The imminent commercial launch of our second and third products validates Holiferm’s process to develop process technologies to produce chemicals from natural raw materials and enable their broad commercialisation,” said Vicky De Groof, Chief Technical Officer of Holiferm. “It is also a testament to the exceptional work of the laboratory team."

“By expanding our product portfolio from sophorolipids to include rhamnolipids and MELs, we aim to provide our customers a platform of solutions based solely on biosurfactants,” said Silke Hoppe, Vice President of Essential Care Chemicals for Sasol Chemicals. “Their carbon footprint as well as their mildness and high performance places these products in a leading position in today’s biosurfactant market.

Since March 2022, Sasol and Holiferm have collaborated on research and development into accelerating innovation to help meet the growing demand for sustainable solutions in primary surfactants. This has now been expanded to include developing processes to manufacture rhamnolipids and MELs. The companies’ joint aspiration is to prepare for testing at pilot plant scale, before they begin a full manufacturing process at Holiferm’s Wallasey plant.

We remind, Sasol announced that its world-scale U.S. ethane cracker has reached beneficial operation on 27 August 2019. Sasol’s new cracker, the heart of its Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP), is the third and most significant of the seven LCCP facilities to come online and will provide feedstock to six new derivative units at Sasol’s Lake Charles multi-asset site.

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