Toray develops recycled nylon 66 recovered from silicone-coated airbags

Toray has announced that it has developed technology to create a recycled nylon 66 recovered from discarded silicone-coated airbags offering the same flowability and mechanical properties as virgin nylon 66 injection moulding grades, said the company.

Airbag fabric can be coated or non-coated with silicone. Recycling of the non-coated fabric is common practice; Refinverse was the first in Japan to achieve commercial-scale silicone-coated fabric recycling. It strips the silicone from airbag fabric scrap cuttings, after which these are washed.

Toray obtains material from the Refinverse Group, Inc, which it compounds with certain additives to create its high-quality recycled nylon. It is introducing the new material under the Ecouse (pronounced Eco-Use) brand name. Ecouse is the proprietary integrated brand for eco-friendly recycled materials and products that Toray rolled out worldwide in 2015.

An issue with recycling through stripping and washing has been the traces of silicone that fail to be eliminated during the process, degrading the resin and contaminating the moulds during processing. Another issue has been that the high viscosity of the airbag yarn limits applications in thin-wall and other injection moulding processes requiring high fluidity.

Toray incorporated certain additives that prevent any residual silicone resin from migrating to the surface of moulded products, and at the time, considerably reducing mould adhesion. The result is a recycled nylon 66 resin with flowability and mechanical properties on par with those of virgin material.

Toray plans to start full-fledged sample work in April 2023 or later, and ultimately looks to procure recycled raw materials at its overseas sites to establish a global supply system. It will also explore commercialising recycled nylon 66 products made from airbags recovered from end-of-life vehicles.

To date, the company has focussed on recycled plastic products derived primarily from post industrial scrap materials from in-house production processes. It aims to extend recycling to used automotive parts and industrial equipment. Toray is also planning to expand its Ecouse portfolio further, among other with Ecouse Toraycon, a chemically-recycled polybutylene terephthalate resin product that has properties equivalent to virgin materials; Ecouse Toyolac acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and Ecouse Torelina polyphenylene sulfide.

We remind, Toray Industries, Inc., announced that it has developed a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film that combines excellent applicability and adhesion for water-based and solvent-free coatings and can eliminate solvent-derived carbon-dioxide emissions. The company looks to produce the film at a domestic plant by end-March 2024 to help popularize eco-friendly film products for which decarbonization during manufacturing is desirable. These items include release, adhesive, printing, packaging, and automotive films.

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Teijin said that it has started producing and marketing biomass-based polycarbonate (PC) resin products at the company's Matsuyama and Mihara production sites, said the company.

"Beginning on 30 January, Teijin... has started producing and marketing biomass PC resin products containing bisphenol A (BPA) made from biomass naphtha that was tracked with the mass-balance approach as well as the conventional PC resin products using petroleum-derived raw materials," the company said in a statement.

The company produces 125,000 tonnes/year of PC via three lines at its Matsuyama site, according to the ICIS Supply & Demand database.

The company has received ISCC PLUS sustainable-product certification from the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) system for biomass-derived BPA PC resin products produced in Japan.

Teijin is the first Japanese company to obtain ISCC PLUS certification for the PC resin products.

We remind, Teijin Frontier Co., Ltd., the Teijin Group’s fibers and products converting company, announced that its core base for polyester fiber manufacturing, Teijin Polyester (Thailand) Limited (TPL), launched a cutting-edge automated facility for the highly efficient production of polyester filaments.

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Covestro will increasingly focus the Engineering Plastics business entity on its core business, said the company.

As a result, the Maezio® product line with highly specialized fiber-reinforced composites and the associated production at the Markt Bibart site are to be discontinued in the course of the current year. “With its Group-wide ‘Sustainable Future’ strategy, Covestro is consistently aligning itself with the needs of high-growth customer industries to generate sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive market,” says Lily Wang, Head of Covestro’s Engineering Plastics business entity. Despite major investments in the development of the Maezio® business and in production technology, as well as technological advances achieved as a result, we were ultimately able to leverage only a few synergies with our core business. Therefore, after a thorough review, we have decided that the Maezio® product line will be discontinued. This decision was not easy for us,” Wang adds.

Covestro started working in the field of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites in 2015 with the acquisition of TCG Thermoplast Composite GmbH. Following the strategic decision to discontinue the Maezio® product line after almost eight years, Covestro searched intensively for a buyer for the Markt Bibart site. As this attempt was ultimately not successful, Covestro decided to close the site later this year. Most recently, 48 of the approximately 7,600 employees in Germany were employed there. “We have initiated an extensive sales process, which, unfortunately, was not successful. Our focus on the ground is now on providing the best possible support to all colleagues. To this end, we will be working closely with the local employee representatives to find fair solutions for all those affected and to ensure that the closure process is socially responsible,” emphasizes Site Manager John Bauer.

We remind, Covestro and LANXESS are cooperating in the energy-intensive production of basic chemicals at their Lower Rhine sites in Germany and make them more climate friendly. LANXESS procures chlorine, caustic soda and hydrogen from the ISCC PLUS-certified sites of Covestro in Leverkusen and Krefeld-Uerdingen. With immediate effect, Covestro is manufacturing around one-third of the volume of products it supplies to LANXESS using energy from hydropower based on guarantees of origin.

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A fire, which broke out on Tuesday at Nynas AB's oil refinery in the Swedish city of Nynashamn on the Baltic Sea coast, has been put out, said Reuters.

"The fire broke out mid-morning today and (rescue services) arrived quickly on the scene and the fire is now extinguished. The affected area was immediately evacuated," the Nynas spokesperson said in an email.

A spokesperson for the local fire and rescue service told Reuters earlier it was crude oil that was on fire. She said there were no buildings on fire, and there did not appear to be risk of the flames spreading.

The Nynas AB spokesperson said six persons had been treated onsite after inhaling smoke, one of which had been taken to hospital for further treatment while the others had returned to work.

Images published by daily Aftonbladet and public broadcaster Sveriges Radio showed thick black smoke rising over the refinery located some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the Swedish capital Stockholm.

We remind, U.S. crews extinguished a fire on Tuesday at Phillips 66's 149,000-barrel-per-day joint-venture refinery in Borger, Texas, and six people were treated for injuries. Local media reported earlier that the fire had occurred in the storage tank farm at the Borger complex, shutting a state highway near the refinery. All workers at the refinery were accounted for, and the cause of the incident is being investigated.

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The European Commission’s announcement that the EU is proposing a $100/bbl price cap on Russian oil products such as diesel, jet fuel and gasoline, and a USD45/bbl cap on discounted products like fuel oil, would not severely impact Russian refiners, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Speaking at Wood Mackenzie’s London office on January 31, Mark Williams, Research Director of Short-Term Refining & Oil Products, said that the oil products price cap, which is due to come into force on February 5, would have minimal impact on Russian refining crude runs and distillate exports.

“With Russian Urals trading at USD40/bbl on an FOB basis, capping the price at USD100/bbl and USD45/bbl, respectively, would still see Russian refining margins of USD20/bbl–$30/bbl,” Williams said. “At these levels, Russian refining economics are still very strong, so the incentive to refine crude into oil products remains high."

Alan Gelder, Vice President of Refining, Chemicals and Oil Markets at Wood Mackenzie, said that the challenge for Russian refiners is finding a pool of new, more distant buyers to replace the distillate barrels currently clearing into Europe. However, he added that with the price cap set at the proposed levels, Russian distillate prices could theoretically discount by a further USD200/metric t vs. market benchmarks before eliminating the commercial incentive to operate their refining sector.

“At these potential discount levels, the economic incentives for key emerging countries to import Russian distillates could outweigh the associated geopolitical and reputation risks and so distillate exports continue to flow,” Gelder added.

Russia has increasingly diversified its distillate exports in recent months, according to Wood Mackenzie's VesselTracker data. However, despite the emergence of new export markets for Russian distillates, the re-distribution of Russian oil product trade from the EU import ban does have a broader market impact. Williams expects Q1 2023 Russian crude runs and diesel exports to be ~800,000 bpd and 200,000 bpd lower than Q4 2022 levels, which will support both global crude and diesel prices through H1 2023.

The next few months are therefore likely to be volatile as global trade flows reshuffle,” Gelder said. “We do not see the price caps having any additional impact on trade flows at the currently proposed levels; however, if flows to new markets continue to develop as pricing discounts widen, there remains an upside risk to both Russian refining crude runs and distillate exports in 2023.”

We remind, independent Russian oil refiner Forteinvest has clinched a deal that will see Russian gasoline sent to Pakistan by land for the first time, two industry sources said on Friday, as Russian refiners seek alternative markets for motor fuels days before an EU import ban. Forteinvest has sold to a trader an initial 1,000-tonne lot of gasoline from its Orsk plant for delivery to Pakistan and has more requests to supply gasoline, diesel and LPG to the country, the sources added.

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