OQ Chemicals Reduces CO2 Emissions at Bay City, Texas Plant by 10% in 2022

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The global chemical company OQ Chemicals has reduced its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 10% at its Bay City, Texas production site in 2022, compared to the previous year's averages, said Polymerupdate.

To achieve this, the company carried out a dedicated boiler and flare improvement project to optimize the flow of vent gases from chemical production units and to further improve the combustion process. Project progress was tracked for 2022, and demonstrated improved production process stability and subsequently reduced emissions.

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is crucial to addressing the urgent issue of climate change. OQ Chemicals has made a significant contribution to this global effort by reducing its emissions at Bay City by 10%. This success was made possible through the excellent collaboration of our dedicated teams from the Engineering and Operations departments. The project aimed to improve boiler controls, enabling increased consumption of vent gases for energy recovery and reduced flaring, and included equipment improvements in the utilities area,” said Kevin Hunt, OQ Chemicals Director of Maintenance and Technical at Bay City, Texas.

OQ Chemicals’ company-wide strategic program ‘reduce’ aims to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next years, with the ultimate goal of becoming climate neutral by mid-century. The boiler and flare improvement project falls under Scope 1, which encompasses direct emissions from production activities. With the reduce program, OQ Chemicals tackles all scopes of emissions, including indirect Scope 2 and all relevant Scope 3 emissions.

We remind, Rohm and OQ Chemicals officially broke ground on their new world-scale methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Bay City, Texas. The plant will be the first to employ Rohm's LiMA ("Leading in Methacrylates") technology on a large industrial scale, which is its latest proprietary production technology. It will have a capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year once completed in early 2024, which will enable Rohm to serve increasing demand for MMA and support the reliability of its supply chain towards its customers globally.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- NOVA Chemicals Corporation announced sector-leading ESG ambitions to drive the circular economy for plastics, in line with its vision to become the leading sustainable polyethylene producer in North America, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

By 2030, the company aims to: set new industry standards for driving the transition to the plastics circular economy and solidifying the market for recycled polyethylene, with 30 per cent of its polyethylene salesi from recycled content; Be at the forefront of decarbonization by reducing its Scope 1 and 2 absolute CO2 emissions by 30 per centii; and Become a Top 30 company in Canada.

Outlined in NOVA 2030: Our Roadmap to Sustainability Leadership, NOVA Chemicals has also shared its aspiration to reach net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050.

To achieve these aspirations, NOVA Chemicals anticipates investing between $2-4 B by 2030 to expand its sustainable product offerings, decarbonize assets, and build a state-of-the-art mechanical recycling business while exploring new advanced recycling technologies to create high-quality, high-performance recyclable and low carbon plastics.

Building on its proprietary, Advanced SCLAIRTECHTM technology (AST), NOVA Chemicals will explore expanding its product portfolio to include the development of innovative, advanced materials. These new product offerings, which will include the company’s first ASTUTE polyolefin plastomers line, will better serve existing customers and provide more options for sustainability-focused end markets such as electric vehicles and renewables.

NOVA Chemicals has already begun growing its portfolio of recycled and recyclable polyethylene resins through its recently announced launch of SYNDIGO recycled polyethylene, a new portfolio of products made from circular polymers to encourage both waste and emissions reductions.

We remind, NOVA Chemicals announced a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with Shell Energy for renewable power, marking the first of many opportunities to increase low carbon, renewable energy in its power portfolio.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- KBR has launched a new ethylene and propylene process technology, utilising 100% hydrogen-fuelled burners, “for zero emissions from the ethylene cracking furnaces,” said the US energy and chemicals engineer company.

The new SCOREKlean technology would play a major role to decarbonise the petrochemical industry, given that furnaces are the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the industry, KBR said.

"We are excited to launch SCOREKlean, especially at a time when the petrochemical industry is going through a growth phase and also prioritising decarbonisation," said Doug Kelly, KBR president, Technology.

We remind, KBR announced that BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) Limited has awarded an optimization stage engineering services contract to SOCAR-KBR (SKLLC) for the Shah Deniz compression project in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Grupa Azoty Polyolefins said on Wednesday that it has selected exclusive Europe distributors for the polypropylene (PP) that will be produced by a USD1.8bn world-scale propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and PP plant that it plans to launch in Police, northwestern Poland, said the company.

The plant was “99% complete”, the company also said, reiterating a statement it first made on 15 February. The PP, marketed under the name Gryfilen, will be distributed in Poland by Grupa Azoty Compounding, while the other Europe distributors would be Ter Hell Plastic (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland), Nexeo Plastic Europa (Italy, France, Spain and Portugal), Biesterfield Plastic (UK and Ireland) and Imlitex Industry UAB (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine), Grupa Azoty Polyolefins said.

The company, a special purpose vehicle of largest Polish chemicals producer Grupa Azoty, added that it was in the process of selecting distributors for various other European markets including Germany. Gryfilen plastics would be characterised by a very low content of volatile substances and would also not contain phthalates or bisphenol A (BPA), the Azoty unit also noted.

The Azoty installation will boast a PDH facility with a capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year of polymer-grade propylene and a PP facility with a 400,000 tonne/year capacity.

Poland is presently a PP importer but after the implementation of the project it should become an exporter, according to Grupa Azoty.

We remind, the scheduled startup of Grupa Azoty’s (Tarnow, Poland) flagship Polimery Police propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene (PP) project at Police, Poland, has been delayed to the first quarter of 2023 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF begins production of its first bio-based polyol, Sovermol, in Mangalore, India, said the company.

This product serves the fast-growing demand of eco-friendly products for applications in new energy vehicles (NEV), windmills, flooring and protective industrial coatings in Asia Pacific. Utilizing the existing facilities at BASF's Mangalore site, the Sovermol production facility is now operational after comprehensive planning and construction.

Sourced from renewable materials, Sovermol contains zero volatile organic compounds (VOC). Sovermol products are used to produce sustainable coatings and adhesives for various industries, enabling customers to reduce their carbon footprint and to save resources.

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 has broken ground on a new production complex at its Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China, that includes plants for glacial acrylic acid (GAA), butyl acrylate (BA) and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA). Planned to come on stream by 2025, the complex will have an annual production capacity of approximately 400,000 metric tons of BA and 100,000 metric tons of 2-EHA.

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