Idemitsu, Toray partner on supply chain to produce ABS from renewable naphtha

Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd and Toray Industries, Inc announced a partnership to build a supply chain for biomass plastics using biomass naphtha as a raw material, manufactured biomass naphtha-derived styrene monomer (SM) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) using biomass SM as a raw material, said the company.

Idemitsu Kosan, an SM manufacturer, manufactures biomass SM using a mass balance method. Toray, a plastic manufacturer, uses the biomass SM as a raw material to manufacture biomass ABS resin at the Toray Chiba Plant.

Production is scheduled to start in October 2023, and this is the first case of biomass ABS resin production in Japan.

In recent years, countermeasures against global warming due to the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been taken up as an urgent issue.

Both Idemitsu Kosan and Toray have emphasised a carbon-neutral society by 2050. Biomass naphtha is manufactured from plant-derived raw materials, so it can reduce CO2 emissions compared to petroleum-derived naphtha.

We remind, Idemitsu Kosan Co, restarted the 100,000 bpd No.2 crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Yokkaichi refinery in central Japan on Dec. 3. The unit was shut on Sept. 26 for scheduled maintenance. Separately, a fire broke out at a catalytic reformer at its Hokkaido refinery in northern Japan on the night of Dec. 20, but was extinguished within a few hours, the spokesperson said.

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ADNOC, a reliable and responsible provider of lower-carbon intensity energy, has signed agreements with 23 UAE and international companies for local manufacturing opportunities across a wide range of critical industrial products worth USD4.63 bn, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The agreements outline the intention of the companies to manufacture these products in the UAE, supporting the ‘Make it in the Emirates’ initiative and the ‘Abu Dhabi Industrial Strategy.’ The products are part of the USD19 B worth of products in ADNOC’s procurement pipeline that the company identified for domestic manufacturing in July 2022.

ADNOC continues to encourage the private sector to capitalize on the commercial opportunities for domestic manufacturing across its value chain through its In-Country Value (ICV) program, as it expands and decarbonizes its operations.

Dr. Saleh Al Hashimi, ADNOC Director, Commercial & In-Country Value Directorate, said, “In line with the directives of the UAE’s wise leadership, ADNOC is creating long-term domestic manufacturing opportunities from our procurement pipeline to enhance the UAE’s industrial base and strengthen the resilience of our supply chains as we make today’s energy cleaner and invest in the clean energies of the future. These agreements reinforce our role as a critical engine for the UAE’s industrial growth and they offer significant potential to further increase our GDP contributions, stimulate economic diversification and create more skilled job opportunities for UAE Nationals. We look forward to working with these companies to deliver on these important agreements and drive more sustainable value to the UAE."

Last year, ADNOC signed agreements for local manufacturing commitments worth more than USD6.8 B with UAE and international companies. The company continues to take a transparent approach to showcasing its product outlook as part of its ICV program. This approach underscores ADNOC’s efforts to ensure business continuity and incentivize investors and suppliers to set up or expand manufacturing capacity in the UAE. ADNOC aims to drive USD48 B back into the UAE economy through its ICV program as part of its 5-yr business plan for 2023–2027.

We remind, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) announced the formation of, ADNOC Gas, effective 1 Jan 2023, a new worldscale gas processing, operations and marketing company. ADNOC Gas combines the operations, maintenance and marketing of the ADNOC Gas Processing and ADNOC LNG (liquefied natural gas) businesses into one global consolidated business.

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Expanded polystyrene maker NexKemia Petrochemicals Inc. is acquiring a PS recycler in a deal that aims to use artificial intelligence to boost the use of recovered materials in new products, said Sustainableplastics.

Eco-Captation of Prevost, Quebec, "will become an integral part of developing an end-to-end circular model for EPS solutions," NexKemia said in announcing the transaction Jan. 30.

"The company combines artificial intelligence-enhanced optical sorting technology with a seamless mechanical recycling process to convert plastic waste into high quality raw materials made with post-consumer recycled material," NexKemia said.

NexKemia is in based in Mansonville, Quebec, not far from the border with Vermont, and Eco-Captation is north of Montreal. The two locations are separated by about 127 miles.

"Scaling up Eco-Captation's technologies will allow NexKemia to rapidly grow our capacity for sustainable expandable polystyrene solutions that incorporate a significant percentage of post-consumer recycled material," NexKemia General Manager Pierre Beaudry said in a statement.

Maurice Barakat is president of Integreon Global, owner of NexKemia. He said Eco-Captation will allow his company to lower the carbon footprint of the packaging and insulation products NexKemia makes.

Eco-Captation, which translates to eco-capture in English, operates about three dozen locations for the collection of EPS in Quebec.

Integreon also owns Cryopak, a maker of insulated shipping containers, including EPS, polyurethane and polyisocyanurate, to keep products cold during transportation.

We remind, Nexkemia plans to decrease the price of all grades of expandable polystyrene (EPS) by 3 cents/lb (USD66/tonne) effective 1 December. Other producers are also separately proposing decreases in December, following decreases in November, October and September. North American EPS demand has weakened, especially for construction, as more seasonality has returned to the market.

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Aramco has signed over 100 agreements and MoU’s, valued at around USD7.2 billion at the 7thedition of the In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) Forum and Exhibition, said Oilandgasmiddleeast.

The forum, which runs from January 30 to February 2 in Dhahran, is held under the theme of ‘Accelerating Future Success’.

At the event, the Saudi giant also announced the launch of Aramco Digital Company, a wholly owned subsidiary which aims to accelerate digital transformation within the Kingdom and the MENA region.

Ahmad A. Al-Sa’adi, Aramco’s executive vice president of Technical Services, said: “The launch of Aramco Digital Company is a great example of such innovation in action, providing state-of-the-art AI and emerging technology expertise in a vital sector of the economy.”

The iktva program encourages the establishment of regional headquarters in the Kingdom. Since inception, more than 150 investments have been made in Kingdom including products manufactured for the first time in Saudi Arabia. The company has also established 16 national training centers (NTCs) in 10 cities, covering more than 60 trades. To date, they have graduated more than 48,000 Saudi nationals.

We remind, Technip Energies – as part of its long-term agreement with Aramco – has been awarded a contract to upgrade sulfur recovery facilities at Aramco’s Riyadh Refinery. This contract covers the implementation of three new tail gas treatment (TGT) units, improving the performance of the existing three sulfur recovery units (SRU) to comply with more stringent regulations for sulfur dioxide emissions, with recovery efficiency at more than 99.9%.

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After a construction time of nine months and investment of around 7.5 million euros, Austrian plastics manufacturer and recycler Alpla, together with its partners Ecohelp SRL (Romania) and United Polymer Trading AG (Switzerland), have started production at their joint recycling plant in Targu Mures, Romania, said Sustainableplastics.

The plant, located adjacent to the existing Ecohelp site in Targu Mures, has an annual capacity of around 18,000 tonnes of post-consumer-recycled PET (rPET) per year and aims to supply the southeast European market with food-grade rPET. The project has led to the creation of around 20 new jobs. The joint venture partners will host the official opening ceremony on 4 May 2023.

"The growing importance of local recycling processes calls for increased commitment in the region. Together with our partners, we combine strengths, increase the processing quality of the recycled PET material and ensure the long-term supply of the southeast European market,’ said Georg Lasser, Director Business Development, Procurement and Sales Recycling at Alpla.

With the first rPET extrusion line in operation, already, the potential for expansion is being explored, as the plant has space for a second extrusion line, which would double capacity.

The present joint venture was established in autumn 2021, with each partner bringing to the venture their own specific skill set. Alpla is contributing its many years of expertise as a global recycling specialist and packaging manufacturer to the partnership; in the case of United Polymer Trading (UPT), the endeavour is benefitting from that company’s extensive distribution network for plastics and recycled material. Locally-based Ecohelp supplies the input material in the form of recycled PET flakes from PET bottles from household waste. The food-grade rPET granulate obtained from this process then serves as the starting material for new preforms and bottles.

The facility fills a gap in the market for high-quality recycled material in Romania and neighbouring countries, according to Mihail Moloiu, General Manager at PET Recycling Team Targu Mures. In addition, the new recycling plant has created around 20 new jobs.

Alpla is investing 50 million euros a year until 2025 in the ongoing expansion of its recycling activities and promotion of complete recycling in as many parts of the world as possible. In total, the annual production capacity of Alpla’s recycling companies and collaborations around the world amounts to approximately 203,000 tonnes of rPET and 74,000 tonnes of rHDPE.

We remind, Alpla Group can look back on a successful financial year 2022 in spite of the crisis, said the company.
Sales of 5.1 billion euros exceeded the previous year’s figure by 27.5 per cent. In addition to the company’s growth strategy, the record turnover reflects the significantly higher costs for energy, materials, staff and transport. In 2023, the packaging and recycling specialist will focus on expanding its injection moulding capacities, investing in recycling, expanding its Pharma division and researching alternative materials.

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