Innovation accelerates drive to sustainability

This week, it’s worth taking the time to highlight the progress that’s been made in recent years to create a more sustainable world, and to reflect on the challenges that still lie ahead, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The reality is that climate change poses a very real threat to life as we know it, and we must all work together if we hope to address it. For asset-intensive industries, one of the most powerful steps in addressing that threat is the energy transition – shifting the energy system away from fossil fuels and toward renewable power sources.

While it’s far from an overnight process, the good news is that progress is clearly being made. Nearly one third of all electricity today comes from renewable sources, billions are being invested in new renewable projects around the globe and a growing number of companies are turning to electrification with renewable power to help reduce their carbon footprint, to cite just a few examples. Though challenges still exist, it’s increasingly clear going forward that technology and innovation will play a key role in helping to overcome them.

Simply by implementing technologies that already exist, many asset-intensive industries are seeing significant reduction in their greenhouse gas emissions. One example comes in the form of easy-to-implement sustainability models. When combined with industrial optimization software, those models can help companies jumpstart their progress across a host of sustainability targets, from emissions management to the use of renewable energy and more. Those models, however, are just the start.

To help drive sustainability efforts across specific focus areas, AspenTech has also laid out a series of sustainability pathways, ranging from well-understood approaches like energy efficiency and emissions reduction to emerging technologies like carbon capture and renewable energy to future pathways, including the use of CO2 as feedstock and advanced plastics recycling.

Those pathways, however, also represent targets for innovation. Using advanced modeling and simulation, companies can identify the best, most economic and most scalable processes for the production of green hydrogen or carbon capture utilization and storage before making expensive capital investments.

And once those innovative assets are up and running, digitalization solutions exist that can help companies make faster, better-informed operational decisions as the work to curb emissions.

Real-time decision-support software, built using operational insights technology, can make it easy for companies across asset-intensive industries to bring together data from across the enterprise, visualize and analyze it and take action on items that have the most impact on emissions and waste reduction.

Those innovations, however, don’t exist in a vacuum. For “the energy transition to happen fast enough to truly have an impact at the scale and timeline that’s required sustainability technology to truly have an impact on the global scale that’s required, collaboration and co-innovation between industry and digital technology innovators will be critical.

While the notion of collaboration between digital solution providers and customers has long been an established part of business, increasingly companies are building partner ecosystems to accelerate projects around the world or co-innovate with start-ups as they develop new sustainability technology. Already, some companies are using technology to overcome significant challenges in their industries.

We remind, Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) recently launched a project to process 10 percent of all used cooking oil in India as part of an effort to produce greener fuels. The problem, however, was that different oils had different chemical properties, some of which created challenges to the way refineries operate.

mrchub.com

Amcor plans to shut down its flexible packages plant in Santiago Norte, Chile, on the back of a “difficult industrial and economic” environment, the company said.

A spokesperson for the company said Amcor’s capsule business in Chile was not affected by the announcement. “Despite our continued efforts, the Santiago Norte flexibles plant has struggled to maintain viable operations in a difficult industrial and economic environment,” said the Amcor spokesperson.

“The plant will continue to operate until 30 June. It has been a very difficult decision and we are doing everything we can to support our flexible packaging team and our customers through the process." Earlier in April, the IMF forecast Chile’s GDP would decrease by 1% in 2023, although that was an improvement from its prior forecast of minus 1.5%.

The country’s economy has been slowing down in past quarters, although GDP in 2022 grew by 2.4% overall. Growth, however, came mostly from services sectors, while chemicals and the wider manufacturing industries posted declines in output.

Melbourne-headquartered Amcor produces flexible packaging, rigid containers, specialty cartons, and closures, and serves several industries such food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical-device, home, and personal care, among others.

According to the company’s website, it posted USD15bn in sales in 2022, employs 44,000 workers, and operates 220 sites in 43 countries.

Polymers widely used in the packaging sector include polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

“The polymer industry, to be honest, really has to get their act together because otherwise they will be regulated out of the market by regulators or by the market itself,” said Gerald Rebitzer, speaking to delegates at the conference.

We remind, Amcor plc announced its Amcor Australia & New Zealand (ANZ) business has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Australian-based technology pioneers, Licella Holdings Ltd (Licella), to invest in one of Australia’s first plastic advanced recycling facilities. As one of the first advanced recycling facilities to be built in Australia, the agreement supports Amcor and Licella’s commitment to creating a local circular economy for soft plastics in Australia and helps advance Amcor’s target to achieve 30% recycled content across its portfolio by 2030.

mrchub.com

Keppel Infrastructure and ExxonMobil Asia Pacific have signed an agreement to develop access to low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia for scalable commercial and industrial applications in Singapore, said Reuters.

Keppel Infrastructure (KI) is the infrastructure arm of Singapore-based global asset manager and operator Keppel Corp. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two companies follows the Singapore government’s launch of its national hydrogen strategy in October last year, which expects hydrogen to meet up to half of Singapore’s power needs by 2050.

"As part of this hydrogen strategy, the Energy Market Authority and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore issued an expression of interest in December for proposals to build, own and operate low- or zero-carbon power generation and bunkering facilities on Jurong Island," KI said in a statement.

In addition to being a hydrogen carrier and storage medium, ammonia can be used directly as a carbon-free fuel or broken down into carbon-free hydrogen for use in power generation, as well as feedstock for refinery and petrochemical operations.

Currently, natural gas meets most of Singapore’s power generation demand.

We remind, ExxonMobil Corp has started up its long-planned project to expand light crude oil processing capacity by 250,000 b/d at ExxonMobil Product Solutions Co's integrated refining and petrochemicals complex along the US Gulf Coast in Beaumont, TX, US.

mrchub.com

Saudi Aramco offered more vacuum gasoil (VGO) supplies to be exported from its Jizan refinery in May, according to traders and shipping data, in a sign that the refinery is yet to ramp up to full output, said Reuters.

The Jizan refinery, Aramco's newest facility, had been expected to ramp up output for 10-ppm gasoil and cut VGO exports this quarter when it hits full capacity.

However, Aramco recently offered three cargoes of 525,000 barrels of VGO each for loading out of Jizan in May, shipping records showed, up from two cargoes in April. Saudi Aramco was not immediately available for comment.

The cargoes are slated for loading between May 1-3, May 11-13, and May 21-23. Aramco usually offers up to two VGO cargoes per month, according to trade sources and past tender records. VGO, a residual oil left over from petroleum distillation, is typically used as a refinery feedstock to produce diesel.

The rise in Aramco's VGO exports also comes at a time when diesel refining margins have weakened globally. Asian refiners' diesel margins have collapsed by more than 50% to USD14.46 a barrel on Tuesday, compared with the start of the year, Refinitiv data showed.

Meanwhile, benchmark Northwest European diesel refining margins fell below USD16 a barrel this week, their lowest since Feb. 25, 2022, as imports into the region remained high.

We remind, Saudi Aramco has signed 59 corporate procurement agreements (CPAs) worth a potential total of USD11 billion with up to 51 domestic and international manufacturers, as a part of its coveted in-kingdom total value add (IKTVA) localisation programme.

mrc.ru

Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that some of its Sustainable Technology Solutions subsidiaries, which are directly controlled by NextChem Holding, have been awarded several new contracts for technology licensing and engineering services for an overall value of approximately USD 90 million, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

These contracts have been granted by international clients mainly in Europe and the Far East.

In particular, Stamicarbon, NextChem Holding innovation and licensing company engaged in nitrogen technologies, has been awarded licensing, process design package and equipment supply contracts for an Ultra-Low Energy grassroots urea plant in the Jiangxi province, China.

This will be the largest Ultra-Low Energy plant with a design capacity of 3,850 metric tons per day and the seventh one globally based on Stamicarbon’s proprietary innovative design, which allows steam consumption to be reduced by about 35% and cooling water consumption by about 16% compared to traditional processes.

We remind, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that, through its subsidiary NextChem Holding S.p.A., it is expanding into the high-value derivates and biodegradable plastic by-products licensing markets with the acquisition of an 83,5% stake of Conser, a technology licensor and process engineering design company based in Rome, Italy.

mrchub.com