OQ Chemicals starts up new pilot plant for esters in Germany

Global chemical company, OQ Chemicals, successfully starts up its new pilot plant for esters in Oberhausen, Germany, said the company.

This state-of-the-art test facility enables the company to manufacture small quantities of esters that are tailored to customer needs for test purposes. The new products can later be produced on a large scale at OQ Chemicals' industrial plants.

The pilot plant is part of OQ Chemicals' investment in research and development and strengthens the company's position as an innovation leader in the field of Oxo Performance Chemicals. Esters are indispensable additives in many applications, especially in the plastics and lubricants industries for the field of electromobility.

We remind, OQ Chemicals carried out a shutdown at its Ruhrchemie plant in Oberhausen, Germany from April 17 to May 12, 2023. This shutdown, also known as a turnaround, is a regular process that occurs every five years and includes routine inspections, maintenance work, and legally required inspections by TUV (a German technical inspection association) to ensure the safety of production facilities. During this time, OQ Chemicals will upgrade its facilities to the latest technical standards, and further optimize them.

mrchub.com

PET Baltija, one of the largest PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET) recyclers in Northern Europe and part of Eco Baltia, the largest waste management and recycling group in the Baltics, announces the investment of over EUR10 million as part of the development of a new PET recycling plant in Olaine, Latvia, said the company.

This joint project is being delivered by Eco Baltia, which is backed by the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, in collaboration with PICHE, a leading industrial park developer in Latvia. The total investment exceeds EUR35 million.

The plant will be one of the largest and most modern PET recycling factories in Europe and one of the largest industrial buildings in Latvia. Its total indoor area, including production facilities, well-equipped office space and various shared facilities, will reach a total of 30,000 square meters. The outdoor area will also cover ~40,000 square meters. As part of the project, PET Baltija’s existing Latvian factory in Jelgava will be relocated to the new production facility in Olaine over time.

Maris Simanovics, Chairman of the Board at Eco Baltia, commented: “In recent years, we have pursued a rapid development strategy for the Eco Baltia group in the Baltics and beyond. In addition to its organic growth, we have also acquired several companies to ensure the production of the best possible final product in PET recycling as well as expanding our offering for environmental management.”

Simanovics, continued: “This development of a new PET Baltija factory is one of the most ambitious business expansion projects by Eco Baltia in recent years. The main objective is to increase the food grade rPET pellets production capacity and provide the necessary conditions for the company's further development, as well as to strengthen our market share within the European market. This will undoubtedly create additional value for our customers and partners respectively, as well as provide better working conditions for our employees.”

With the factory currently under construction, the plant’s initial phase was celebrated in early May. This marked the installation of the first production equipment located within one of the completed production areas.

Salvis Lapins, Chairman of the Board at PET Baltija, added: “This year, the company celebrated its 20th anniversary, having demonstrated that Latvian companies can be significant players in the recycling industry on the European stage. More recently, we are progressing the development of a new factory that will ultimately allow us to more than triple our food grade rPET pellets production capability while also improving efficiency, productivity and set new standards in PET recycling technologies.”

The supplier of the recycling equipment is Starlinger, an Austrian manufacturer and one of the world’s leading developers and manufacturers of recycling technologies. In Europe, only two production plants currently have Starlinger equipment of this level already installed, while globally there are only ten examples. Therefore, the PET Baltija factory will also technologically be one of the most modern PET recycling factories in Europe and in the world more broadly.

Deimante Korsakaite, Executive Partner at INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund and Chairman of the Supervisory Board at PET Baltija, commented: “As part of our strategy, we aim for significant expansion and development of our portfolio companies to become bigger, more efficient and better developed in all aspects, including a better workplace for employees. This step is significant and will move an already international company to its next stage of development. It will progress PET Baltija further forward on the map, as not only a regional but also a European level, for the most modern and efficient recyclers contributing to world’s sustainability drive.”

The new PET Baltija’s recycling factory and industrial park is developed by the leading industrial building developer in Latvia, PICHE. According to PICHE CEO Peteris Senkans, the PET recycling plant is one of the company’s largest and most complex projects of the year.

Senkans commented: “Like other industrial parks developed by PICHE, this project also adheres to the highest of energy efficiency standards. We are pleased that our extensive experience and competence were chosen for the implementation of this project, allowing the construction of a modern industrial building that meets the current requirements for the construction industry.”

Following the sustainability strategies of Eco Baltia and PET Baltija, which aim to reduce resource consumption and promote a circular economy, the building will comply with the BREEM sustainable construction standard and will be fully powered by renewable energy.

The factory will also have unique wastewater treatment equipment which will also significantly reduce the consumption of chemical substances in the wastewater treatment process. In addition, the factory will have a highest of standards air recuperation system which will reuse excess heat energy generated during the PET melting for heating of the building. In accordance with the ESG strategy, significant attention is being paid to employee well-being and working conditions, in order to provide the highest of work safety standards, ergonomic and comfortable workspaces, as well as shared and recreational spaces.

PET Baltija’s relocation is planned in several stages, gradually shifting all PET Baltija production from Jelgava to the new factory in Olaine by the end of Q1’2024. The total number of jobs at the new factory will then exceed 250.

We remind, PET Baltija will acquire Tesil Fibres sro, a Silon sro spin-off and a major fibre producer in Czech Republic. PET Baltija is a subsidiary of Latvia-based Eco Baltija and is among Norther Europe's biggest polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recyclers. The acquisition will boost PET Baltija's revenues by over 50% and transform it into a global company. The transaction will also allow Silon to completely focus on development and production of polyolefin-based performance compounds. Tesil Fibres has 33,000 tonnes of staple fibre manufacturing capacity and employs around 150 people. In 2021, it reported EUR 27 M of sales.

mrchub.com

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and CrowdChem Co., Ltd. announced their joint development of a technology capable of leveraging AI to seamlessly carry out everything from the extraction of technical information likely to be useful in the future to searching for new materials, said the company.

With the aid of natural language processing (NLP), this new technology will deliver greater efficiency in searches for new materials. Additionally, combining generative pre-trained transformers (GPT) and other generative AI technologies with past results is expected to result in the technology’s widespread use in business.

Development work in new fields has, until now, required substantial research time and expenditure. In quite a few cases, unforeseen technical issues cause this work to be discontinued.

To resolve this problem, Mitsui Chemicals and CrowdChem have developed a new platform that works by combining two key technologies. The first of these technologies extracts highly relevant data from technical keywords found in patents and technical literature, as well as in news stories about future trends in the field. The second, meanwhile, is capable of extracting and implementing necessary information from written text.

Meanwhile, combining generative AI with results produced to date will assist in interpreting results, developing specific examples from abstract output, gathering related information and presenting action plans. The technology is therefore expected to find a wide range of uses in business. As the next step, Mitsui Chemicals plans to verify the concept in real-life business challenges and roll out the platform to several business divisions.

Mitsui Chemicals intends to continue taking on the challenge of tapping into advanced technologies, both by integrating sales data with technical data in a way that leverages digital transformation and by combining this data with other advanced digital technologies.

We remind, INEOS has completed the purchase of Mitsui Phenols Singapore in a USD330m deal, giving the UK-based firm over 1m tonnes/year of additional Asia production capacity. Based on Jurong Island, Singapore, the entire asset base of the Mitsui subsidiary will be transferred to INEOS. The business has a production capacity of 410,000 tonnes/year of cumene, 310,000 tonne/year of phenol and 185,000 tonnes/year of acetone.

mrchub.com

The Coatings division of BASF will implement global units for its Automotive OEM Coatings Solutions and Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions businesses, said the company.

With the new organizational setup, BASF better serves its global customers who increasingly ask for global support and services.

Patrick Zheng Yu Zhao will take charge of the new Global Automotive OEM Coatings Solutions business unit, based in Hong Kong. Prior to this role, he was Senior Vice President at Coatings Solutions Asia Pacific. Zhao started his career at BASF in 1999 within the Polyurethane business and held various positions across different divisions. He has an MBA degree from Donghua University and a bachelor's degree in Polymer Science from East China University of Science and Technology.

Chris Titmarsh will assume responsibility for the new Global Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions business unit, located in Munster, Germany. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions EMEA, based in Germany. Titmarsh studied Chemistry from 1992 and completed his postgraduate studies of Business Management in 1999. In 2006, he started his career at BASF as a polymer research chemist. He held various positions in marketing and business management before moving to the Asia Pacific Automotive business located in Hong Kong in 2015.

Frank Naber will assume responsibility for the Global Surface Treatment business unit, which operates under the Chemetall brand, in Frankfurt, Germany. In this position, he succeeds Christophe Cazabeau who will prepare for a new assignment. Prior to this role, Naber was Senior Vice President at Automotive OEM Coatings Solutions EMEA. He studied business administration at the University of Munster and began his career at BASF in 2004. He worked in various regional and global roles in the Polyurethane division in Germany and Belgium. In 2012, Naber joined the Coatings division, where he took on various account and business management functions in the Automotive OEM Coatings business unit in Munster and Hong Kong.

We remind, BASF had a 13.4% decrease in sales for Q1 2023, from EUR23.1 billion in Q1 2022 to EUR20.0 billion. However, net income was EUR1.6 billion, EUR340 million higher than in the same period of the previous year.
The company forecasts sales of between EUR84 billion and EUR87 billion for 2023.

mrchub.com

MRC) -- ORLEN Poludnie, a leading player in biofuels in Poland, has recently concluded the first year of operation of its BioPG plant, converting glycerol, a by-product of biodiesel production, into renewable propylene glycol (BioPG), said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

BioPG obtained from glycerin is bio-based and a highly demanded product used to produce polyester resins, polyurethanes, paints and de-icing solutions, solvents for the food industry, and is used as an ingredient in deodorant sticks and toothpaste. Compared to fossil-based propylene glycol, BioPG reduces the CO2 footprint by at least 60 percent whilst offering the same product quality.

Air Liquide Engineering & Construction provided the license, basic engineering, and proprietary equipment for the new plant, combining its expertise with commercially-proven BASF technology.

BASF’s BioPG technology is operating at full scale for already more than a decade, showing very high selectivity and glycerol conversion using BASF’s H9-66 catalyst. The outstanding catalyst performance enables the hydrogenation in liquid phase without any need for separation of intermediates or solvents, leading to lower energy consumptions compared to other processes.

The BioPG plant supports ORLEN Group’s objective of achieving CO2 neutrality by 2050. With an annual capacity of 30,000 metric tons, ORLEN Poludnie is the first Polish producer of propylene glycol aiming to meet 75 percent of the country's propylene glycol needs.

“We are proud that after a smooth start-up the new plant is operating as planned, for more than one year. The cooperation between ORLEN Poludnie, BASF, Air Liquide Engineering & Construction significantly promotes our business philosophy with the BioPG technology and improves our value chain. The technical support by BASF and Air Liquide Engineering & Construction was outstanding. This really is a joint success,” says Grzegorz Semerjak, Technology Director at ORLEN Poludnie.

“We are pleased to offer to our customers an innovative bio-based renewable solution that provides many environmental benefits and helps our customers move towards a low-carbon society. We were delighted to work with ORLEN Poludnie on their project, to provide our expertise and a one-stop shop BioPG solution,” says Dominique Rouge, Vice President, Sales & Technology at Air Liquide Engineering and Construction.

“Our propylene glycol catalyst has been operating successfully at customers for over ten years, and we are excited about a successful startup and operation of another commercial plant with ORLEN Poludnie. Thanks to the G2PG process, ORLEN Poludnie has opened a completely new business area of bio products and further increased the value creation at its biodiesel plant. As BASF, we are proud to support this development with our innovative technology and catalyst, and to enable a more sustainable BioPG production,” says Detlef Ruff, Senior Vice President, Process Catalysts at BASF.

We remind, PKN ORLEN, finalised a transaction to acquire a part of Poland’s largest plastics manufacturer, Basell Orlen Polyolefins, in which the ORLEN holds an equity interest. The acquisition was approved by the antitrust authorities in Poland and the Netherlands. The business segment, acquired by ORLEN, specialises in the production and sale of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as well as customer service in the Polish market. It is a polymer commonly used to make consumer and industrial products, found in plastic films, bags, canisters, food packaging, as well as components of electronic devices, such as wires and cables.

mrchub.com