Envision Plastics to add recycled HDPE, PP line at North Carolina facility

Envision Plastics is to add a processing line for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) at its Reidsville facility in North Carolina, said Recyclingtoday.

According to the company, the additional line would increase its capacity to produce recycled HDPE by 50%. Envision’s current combined capacity for recycled HDPE and PP stands at 55m lbs/year (25,000 tonnes/year).

Construction work on the second line is to end by 2023 and start-up is expected in “early 2024”, the company said. The second line is expected to add between 25m-30m lbs/year of capacity.

The company did not disclose capital expenditure (capex) figures. Envision’s recycled HDPE is commercialised with the branded name EcoPrime and has been authorised as food-grade by the US’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The company also produces recycled HDPE at another facility in Chino, California. Envision is a subsidiary of Atlanta-, Georgia-headquartered Altium Packaging.

We remind, LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and AFA Nord, a leading recycler of agricultural film, have agreed to create a 50:50 joint venture (JV) that intends to recycle post commercial flexible secondary packaging waste.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend USD450 MM to expand the production and availability of transportation fuels that are blended with higher volumes of biofuels, the agency said on Monday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Biden administration sees the expanded use of lower-emission biofuels as critical to decarbonizing the transportation sector. The Environmental Protection Agency last week announced the highest-ever targets for a federal program that requires oil refiners to blend biofuels into the nation's fuel mix, though the targets were lower than the ethanol industry had expected.

"No administration has been more supportive of the biofuel industry than the Biden-Harris administration," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters on a conference call. The money, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, will go to the USDA's Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP), a cost-share program for fuel facilities to build and retrofit infrastructure that supports biofuel blending and distribution.

The agency also announced the recipients of USD25 MM in grants from a previous HBIIP funding round. Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a key biofuel state, joined Vilsack on the call and said the investment will create new jobs and increase national security.

"We don’t want to be dependent on other countries when it comes to energy," Klobuchar said. Corn-derived ethanol, the most commonly used biofuel, can cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 52% over gasoline, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group.

Some academics and environmental groups have challenged that figure, arguing that biofuel use actually increases emissions due to the carbon released when farmers till land for crops.

It was reported earlier, European Union lawmakers plan to accept changes made by countries last week to the bloc's renewable energy law, to give assurances to France and others on potentially exempting ammonia plants. EU countries on Friday agreed late changes to the law, adding an amendment that said some ammonia plants would struggle to switch to renewable fuels, and a pledge from the European Commission to consider exempting them from renewable targets.

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India's chemical maker KLJ Group has incorporated a 100,000 tonnes/year phthalic anhydride (PA) unit at the Jhagadia complex, marking backward integration that will enable the company to utilise approximately 70-75% of the material produced for captive consumption, said Indianchemicalnews.

The plasticizers and PA production facility (BIS Certified) at the Jhagadia Industrial Estate, Bharuch, Gujarat, is an investment of approximately Indian rupees (Rs) 12bn (USD145m).

The facility has a production capacity of 300,000 tonnes of phthalate plasticizers, 100,000 tonnes of PA, 3,500 tonnes of maleic anhydride (MA) and 700 tonnes of benzoic acid annually, the company said in a statement.

We remind, KLJ Plasticizers (KLJ) in 2021 started cjstrustion a new 100,000 tonne/year phthalic anhydride (PA) capacity at Jhagadia in western Gujarat state by 2023. This is part a planned greenfield integrated phthalate plasticizers and PA complex at the site, on which the company is investing about Indian rupees (Rs) 7bn (USD96m). The initial capacity for phthalate plasticizers would be 250,000 tonnes/year, which is also expected to commence operations by 2023.

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NOVA Chemicals and UK-based Plastic Energy have agreed to explore the feasibility of a pyrolysis-based chemical recycling facility at the Sarnia petrochemicals hub in southern Ontario, said the company.

The plant, with an initial processing capacity of 66,000 tonnes/year, would be the largest of its kind in Canada. Plastic Energy has a process for treating post-consumer plastic waste. Recycled polyethylene (PE) manufactured using Plastic Energy-produced feedstock, called TACOIL, has identical properties to virgin PE, according to the company.

The Canadian project will likely use mixed plastic waste as a feedstock - mixed polyolefin fractions of mixed plastic waste - as all of the Plastic Energy plants do. Recycling post-use plastics offered “tremendous value” to further the circular economy, Greg DeKunder, vice president, Circular Solutions, at NOVA, said in announcing the potential project on Wednesday.

“This agreement with Plastic Energy is a prime example of two companies working together to create timely, effective and sustainable solutions that will help us make progress towards our 2030 recycled plastics ambitions, while diverting hard-to-recycle segments of plastic waste away from landfills,” he said.

NOVA aims to reach 30% recycled content as a share of its total PE sales by 2030. Financial details were not disclosed. ExxonMobil also has plans for a chemical recycling project at Sarnia.

We remind, NOVA Chemicals Corporation announced strategic senior leadership changes that will allow the company to continue the successful implementation of its Roadmap to Sustainability Leadership, remain at the forefront of sustainable polyethylene production, and underscore its commitment to reshaping plastics for a better, more sustainable world.

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North American chemical railcar traffic fell for a sixth straight week, with loadings for the week ended 24 June down 2.8% year on year to 43,927, according to the latest freight rail data from Association of American Railroads.

Chemical loadings fell in the US and Canada but rose in Mexico. For the first 25 weeks of 2023 ended 24 June, North American chemical rail traffic was down 3.0% year on year to 1,130,426, with the US down 4.7%, to 777,339 loadings.

In the US, chemical railcar loadings represent about 20% of chemical transportation by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest. In Canada, chemical producers rely on rail to ship more than 70% of their products, with some exclusively using rail.

We remind, North American chemical railcar traffic fell for a fifth straight week, according to the latest freight rail data from Association of American Railroads. Chemical railcar loadings for the week ended 17 June fell 6.8% year on year to 43,148, with shipments in both the US (-6.5%) and Canada (-8.4%) declining.

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