HIF Global considers olefins production in Texas

HIF Global is considering olefins production for the second phase of the eFuels project that it is developing in Texas, in which the company will convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and green hydrogen into methanol, said the company.

If HIF pursues an olefins project, it would convert the material into jet fuel, said Meg Gentle, executive director of HIF Global. She made her comments during the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference. The company still needs to complete testing with aviation agencies to make sure the material produced by HIF can be certified as aviation fuel, Gentle said.

The Texas project is in Matagorda County, and the first phase will convert methanol into gasoline. The electrolysers for the green-hydrogen portion of the project will come from Siemens and they can produce about 300,000 tonnes/year of hydrogen.

Topsoe is providing the technology to convert the hydrogen and CO2 into methanol. Construction on the first phase could start in 2024, and operations could start in 2027. HIF already has a demonstration plant in Punta Arenas, Chile. It started production in 2022.

We remind, HIF Global started producing its first litres of fuel using green hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) at a demonstration plant in southern Chile. The Haru Oni plant is in Punta Arenas, Chile, and it should begin full commercial operations in March 2023, HIF said. It will produce 350 tonnes/year of methanol and 130,000 litres/year of gasoline. Haru Oni relies on electrolysers to produce green hydrogen and direct-air capture (DAC) to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. The two gases are combined to produce methanol.

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Slashed output at Germany’s Schwedt oil refinery demonstrates the difficulty Berlin faces in turning away from Russian oil, despite plans to work with Poland to find alternative supply, said Reuters.

Schwedt has traditionally supplied 90% of the gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil used in Germany's capital city. However, three months after Warsaw and Berlin agreed to work together the refinery is running at 50%–60% of capacity and those alternative supplies remain elusive.

Moscow last month retaliated against their bilateral efforts by halting oil flows to Poland via the Druzhba pipeline, thereby squeezing Poland’s ability to free up oil for Schwedt. Polish state-controlled refiner PKN Orlen now needs to use more capacity at the Gdansk oil terminal to feed its own Plock refinery.

As result, Schwedt can count on one tanker slot in Gdansk per month at most, about 1 million metric tonnes of oil per year, or just a third of the volume earlier plans called for, a Polish source said.

Germany stopped buying Russian oil in January and the 233,000 barrel-per-day Schwedt refinery since has been running at about 55% capacity, or some 130,000 barrels per day, relying on pipeline supplies from the port of Rostock in northern Germany. Supplies via Poland have so far yielded just two tankers, sources in Poland and Germany said.

Rosneft stake. Germany and Poland started discussions about shipping non-Russian oil to Schwedt via the port of Gdansk, Polish pipelines and Druzhba in early spring 2022. Druzhba can deliver both Russian and Kazakh crude. But a major hurdle has been Schwedt’s ownership structure as Russian refiner Rosneft owns a 54.17% stake.

Berlin put the refinery into a trusteeship in September but it was not until mid-February that it drafted legal changes allowing the sale of Rosneft's stake without the need for prior nationalization. Removing the Russian firm from Schwedt was a crucial part of the agreement for Warsaw.

We remind, Rosneft will parnter with Indonesia to contribute USD24 B on a greenfield refinery in East Java province.
The refinery will have 14 refining units for vehicle fuels as well as seven units for petrochemicals. The purpose is to construct a facility which can process heavy crude oil and high sulfur crude oil.

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BASF has commenced production of its first bio-based polyol, Sovermol®, in Mangalore, India, said the company.

This is the company’s first bio-based polyol production facility in Asia Pacific, serving the region’s fast-growing demand of eco-friendly products for new energy vehicles (NEV), windmills, flooring and protective industrial coatings, it said.

“Asia Pacific is the world’s fastest growing market for NEV and coatings. The Sovermol production facility is strategically located in Mangalore, close to raw materials supply. This will significantly reduce transportation time and contributes to our ambition to bring “best-in-class” products and services efficiently to our customers in Asia Pacific,” said Dr. Claus Dallner, Senior Vice President, Global Business Unit Resins and Additives, BASF.

The BASF site in Mangalore has been in operation since 1996. Spread across more than 200 hectares, it is BASF’s largest production facility in South Asia and produces polymer dispersions, fine chemical catalysts and coatings for paper, agriculture and automotive industries.

We remind, BASF said it would cut 2,600 jobs, halt share buybacks and hike investment to improve competitiveness as it warned of a further decline in earnings due to rising costs. The German chemicals giant said in a statement that adjusted 2023 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), would fall to between 4.8-5.4 billion euros (USD5.09-USD5.69 billion) from 6.9 billion euros in 2022, which was down 11.5% from 2021.

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TotalEnergies is developing its renewable activities in Poland by acquiring the country’s main biogas producer, Polska Grupa Biogazowa (PGB), and a 200-megawatt (MW) development pipeline of solar projects, said the company.

With 130 employees in nine Polish regions, PGB is mainly involved in generating renewable heat and power from biogas sourced from organic waste. It owns and operates 17 facilities in production and one under construction, for a total power generation capacity of 166 GWh per year1. PGB's portfolio also includes a development pipeline of 23 projects.

The acquisition of PGB raises TotalEnergies’ biogas production capacity to 1.1 TWh and gives the Company a leading position in the promising Polish market, which represents Europe’s fourth-largest potential for biogas and biomethane production, estimated at close 100 terawatt-hours (TWh).

TotalEnergies is also entering the Polish solar market with the acquisition of six solar projects under development representing a production capacity of 200 MW. Located in northern and western Poland, the first solar farms are expected to come on stream by 2025.

We remind, TotalEnergies is joining forces with Portuguese packaging player Intraplas to create commercial products with TotalEnergies renewable polymer – a range of the RE:clic portfolio, which uses renewable sources to lower carbon footprint. TotalEnergies’ biorefinery in La Mede, France, allows direct access to renewable feedstock for its drop-in RE: newable polymer range derived from bio-based products. The company claims these polymers retain virgin-like properties.

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Saudi Arabian producer Advanced Petrochemical said on Monday that it will build a pipeline to connect its propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant to the cracker of Jubail United Petrochemical Co (JUPC), to promote industrial integration, said the company.

In a filing to the Saudi bourse, Advanced Petrochemical said it awarded a Saudi riyal (SR) 51m (USD14m) engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) contract for the pipeline to Gas Arabia.

The pipeline system will supply by-product gaseous stream containing high value chemicals from Advanced to JPUC’s cracker for processing and upgrade.

Advanced Petrochemical operates a PDH unit that produces 455,000 tonnes/year of propylene in Al Jubail, as well as two polypropylene (PP) units at the site with a combined capacity of 480,000 tonnes/year.

JUPC has a steam cracker in Al Jubail with a 1.45m tonne/year ethylene capacity, and further produces diethylene glycol (DEG), ethylene glycols, ethylene oxide (EO) and linear olefins.

We remind, Advanced Petrochemical Company, based in Saudi Arabia, said that one of its subsidiary, Advanced Polyolefins Industry Company has signed several agreements worth USD1.6 B to fund the construction of plants at Jubail Industrial City II. The project includes a development of a propane dehydrogenation plant with a total annual capacity of 843,000 tons in addition to a polypropylene (800,000 tons) and a isopropanol facility (70,000 tons).

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