Origin Materials creates sustainable PET bottle caps

Origin Materials, a carbon negative materials company with a mission to enable the world’s transition to sustainable materials, today announced it has created “all PET” (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle caps, making “100% recycled PET” possible from cap to bottle to improve post-consumer recycling, said Petnology.

Origin’s PET caps are more sustainable than common alternatives because they may be produced with any type of PET, from recycled PET to Origin’s 100% bio-based, carbon-negative virgin PET. PET offers better oxygen and CO2 barrier than HDPE and PP, common cap materials.

Origin’s patent-pending, cost-competitive design and manufacturing innovation aids in producing “mono-material” products. These are composed of only a single type of material, are typically easier to recycle than products made from multiple materials, and are highly sought-after for consumer packaged goods to improve recycling.

“We identified a global sustainability challenge and an opportunity to solve it,” said John Bissell, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Origin Materials. “An all-PET bottle and cap and closure system is an obvious, necessary next step in beverage packaging and recycling. With our process, we can make caps from 100% recycled PET or 100% bio-based PET, unlocking important sustainability and potentially performance benefits for our customers.”

Origin’s innovation is expected to begin to address an approximately $65 billion global caps and closures market, anticipated to grow to USD96 billion by 2030.

We remind, Origin Materials, Inc., the world’s leading carbon negative materials company with a mission to enable the world’s transition to sustainable materials, and Terphane, part of Tredegar Corporatio, a global leader in specialty PET polyester films (“BOPET”), announced today a strategic partnership to produce sustainable, high-performance bio-polymer films.

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Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, one of the world’s largest producers of recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) resin, announced the completion of the expansion of its recycling facility in Brazil, supported by a ‘Blue Loan’ from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank, said the company.

The recycling facility, located in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, is increasing its production capacity from 9 thousand tons to 25 thousand tons per year of PET made from post-consumer recycled (PET-PCR) material. The project is part of Indorama Ventures’ Vision 2030 ambition to continue building a sustainable global company, including spending USD1.5 billion to increase its recycling capacity to 50 billion PET bottles per year by 2025.

PET is a unique and widely used plastic for water and soda bottles and the most recycled plastic in the world. Indorama Ventures, the world’s largest provider of recycled PET resin used to make beverage bottles, invested US$20 million to optimize its Brazil facility’s processes and acquire new equipment such as washing machines to help remove labels, grind bottles in water and reduce water consumption by 70%.

In November 2020, the IFC provided USD300 million in Blue Loan funding to Indorama Ventures with the objective of increasing recycling capacity and diverting plastic waste from landfills and oceans in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, and Brazil—countries which are grappling with mismanaged waste and serious plastic waste in the environment. Blue Loan funds are certified and tracked for projects that support sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health. Indorama Ventures has secured a total USD2.4 billion in long-term sustainable financing from various financial institutions between 2018–2022 to support sustainability projects.

We remind, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, a global sustainable chemical producer, and Carbios, a biotech company developing and industrializing biological solutions to reinvent the life cycle of plastic and textiles, announce today the signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form a Joint Venture for the construction of the world’s first PET biorecycling plant in France.

Indorama Ventures has secured a total USD2.4 billion in long-term sustainable financing from various national and international financial institutions between 2018–2022. The funds are supporting the company’s expansion and sustainability projects in line with its strategy under Vision 2030 as a purposeful company with ESG at its core.

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Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. has been awarded contracts for two EPC packages related to a petrochemical expansion at the SATORP refinery in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Package 1 (Mixed Feed Cracker and Refinery Off Gases) involves installing a Mixed Feed Cracker (MFC) to produce an additional 1,650 KTA (kilo tons per annum) of ethylene and related industrial gases. Package 4 (Utilities, Flares & Interconnecting) relates to installation of facilities that supply utilities such as electricity and water to plants, and functions as interconnecting systems that support main packages within the facilities.

The project is located at Jubail Industrial City, which is about 70 kilometers northeast of Dammam. Once completed, the new petrochemical complex will be one of the largest downstream facilities in Saudi Arabia.

HDEC will execute detailed design, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up activities on a lump-sum turn-key basis with a contract value of around USD5 bn.

HDEC has proven its capabilities having previously successfully completed projects in Saudi Arabia, including facilities at Khursaniyah Gas Plant and Uthmaniyah Gas Plant.

Award of these new EPC contracts demonstrates the competitiveness of HDEC’s technology and client confidence, helping it maintain a leading position in the Middle East construction market.

HDEC first set foot in Saudi Arabia in 1975 and subsequently struck a historic deal for the industrial port in Jubail, on the coast of the Arabian Gulf. It has since built its presence in the kingdom, executing over 160 projects with a combined value of USD18.3 billion.

Currently, HDEC is executing 13 projects worth USD4.87 billion in Saudi Arabia, including Package 6 & 12 of the Marjan Oil Field Development Program, Jafurah Package 2, and a number of Transmission Lines and Substation Projects. HDEC is recognized for its outstanding construction and technological prowess by its clients.

We remind, Hyundai Living & Culture, Hyundai Department Store Co. Group's building materials unit, said on Wednesday that it has received Good Recycled Product (GR) certification from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of S.Korea for its recycled PET packaging sheets.

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Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, reported second quarter 2023 GAAP diluted earnings per share of USD2.00 and adjusted earnings per share of USD2.17, said the company.

The Company generated net sales of USD2.8 billion in the quarter, a decrease of 2 percent from the prior quarter, reflecting a sequential decrease in pricing of 4 percent partially offset by a sequential increase in volume of 2 percent. The Company reported second quarter consolidated operating profit of USD335 million, adjusted EBIT of USD444 million, and operating EBITDA of USD616 million, sequential increases of 33, 5, and 3 percent, respectively.

The Company initiated incremental actions to reduce cost, align production and inventory levels with demand, and maximize cash generation in response to continued demand softness, destocking across certain end-markets, and heightened competitive dynamics. As a result, the Company:

Reduced inventory balances by $235 million in the second quarter with inventory reductions across Engineered Materials and the Acetyl Chain of 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively;

Generated second quarter operating cash flow of $762 million and free cash flow of USD611 million, all-time records by USD132 million and USD91 million, respectively;

Reduced net debt by USD515 million in the second quarter, including a USD386 million sequential decrease in debt and a USD129 million sequential increase in cash.

"While we continue to navigate a persistently soft demand environment and volatile competitive backdrop, our team executed incremental actions that enabled us to deliver sequential earnings growth and record cash generation in the second quarter," said Lori Ryerkerk, chair and chief executive officer. "Our priority is to continue to maximize cash generation and I thank our team for exceeding our working capital reduction target in the second quarter to support free cash flow that was 18 percent higher than any quarter in our history. With strong free cash flow and anticipated net proceeds of approximately $450 million from the Food Ingredients joint venture, I am confident that we will meaningfully exceed the full year objective to reduce net debt by USD1 billion in 2023."

We remind, Celanese is delaying the start-up of its new acetic acid plant in Clear Lake, Texas. Celanese had mechanically completed the project and had begun commissioning when it discovered defects in some of the high-metallurgy components from the manufacturing process of its supplier, the company said. These parts must be replaced before start-up.

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Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc. (TAK) is reviewing its film line expansion in South Korea as part of its 300 billion won (USD229 million) capital expenditure plan for this year, unlike other chemical firms that have frozen their investments due to an industry slowdown amid the economic downturn, said Kedglobal.

According to sources in the chemical industry on Sunday, Japanese chemical giant Toray Group’s Korean subsidiary is in the final review stage for investment to add film lines at its plant in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province.

The move goes against its peers’ decisions to either sell off their film businesses or lower their film line utilization rate due to dwindling global demand for TVs and other appliances amid lingering concerns over the economic downturn.

In general, petrochemical companies expand their facility investments during an industry upturn but tighten their belts and sit on their money for future investments during a downturn.

It is also a time when most Korean chemical companies remain especially cautious about capex expansion as their Chinese peers have been aggressively expanding their capacity to reduce reliance on imports.

In February, Toray Advanced Materials announced a plan to expand its annual production capacity of polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resins by 5,000 tons at its Gunsan plant in North Jeollar Province. PPS is a super engineering plastic resin boasting excellent heat resistance, strength, chemical resistance and processability.

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