TotalEnergies to Build a New Plastic Recycling Unit at the Grandpuits

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TotalEnergies has announced the building of a new mechanical recycling unit for plastic waste at its Grandpuits site southeast of Paris, said the company.

This new investment follows those announced in June 2023 — the doubling of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and construction of a biomethane production unit — in line with the Company’s ambition to develop low-carbon energy and the circular economy.

The new unit should enter service in 2026 and produce 30,000 tons a year of high value-added compounds containing up to 50% recycled plastic material.

In addition to the mechanical recycling unit, a specific center will be established that provides technical assistance to customers and develops new products, in order to provide sufficient support for the commercialization of the new range of hybrid compounds.

One year after investing in a new production line that makes high-performance recycled polypropylene for the automotive sector in its plant at Carling, the Company is now expanding its recycled polymer offering with this new unit at Grandpuits. It will target the high-performance packaging market, in particular for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

"This investment is great news for the local area and represents another milestone for the zero-crude platform at Grandpuits. The investment in this plastic recycling unit is entirely consistent with the Company’s ambition to grow the circular economy and will contribute to the objective of reaching 1 million tons of circular polymers by 2030. By developing all these projects at the Grandpuits zero-crude platform, the Company can confirm it will maintain 250 jobs at the site, honoring the commitments that it made in September 2020," said Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals at TotalEnergies.

Grandpuits is an ambitious project for low-carbon energy and the circular economy: In September 2020, in line with its aim to get to net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies launched a project to convert this industrial site. The "zero-crude" project, which will cost an estimated total of over €500 million, is based on the development of several future-oriented activities in biomass, renewables and the circular economy: SAF production: the biorefinery’s output capacity of 210,000 tons a year by 2025 and 285,000 tons a year by 2027 will allow the Company to keep pace with the gradual rise in EU blending mandates, set at 6% in 2030.

Biomethane production: the biomethane unit, which will receive feedstock in the form of organic waste from the biorefinery, will prevent the emission of almost 20,000 tons of CO? per year. Its annual capacity of 80 gigawatt-hours (GWh) represents the average annual demand of 16,000 people.

Advanced and mechanical recycling: with two recycling units, one for advanced recycling with capacity to treat 15,000 tons of waste a year, and another a mechanical recycling unit announced today, Grandpuits is establishing itself as a major French recycling site.

Green electricity generation: Grandpuits is home to the largest solar farm in the Ile-de-France region, equipped with a battery energy storage system. Since coming onstream in July 2023, it has been generating 31 GWh of green electricity a year, enough to supply 19,000 people. This power generation required the installation of 46,000 solar panels and adds to the 28 GWh facility built at Gargenville, west of Paris, which was launched in 2022.

We remind, TotalEnergies, Aramco and SABIC have for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa successfully converted oil derived from plastic waste into ISCC+ certified circular polymers. The plastic pyrolysis oil, also called plastic waste derived oil (PDO), was processed at the SATORP refinery jointly owned by Aramco and TotalEnergies, in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. It was then used as a feedstock by Petrokemya, a SABIC affiliate, to produce certified circular polymers.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF is obtaining long-term access to QIRA bio-based 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from Qore LLC (Qore), a joint venture of Cargill and HELM AG, said the company.

BASF and Qore have concluded an agreement to this effect. Qore will produce the bio-based BDO at Cargill’s biotechnology campus and corn refining operation in Eddyville, Iowa. With QIRA, BASF will expand its existing offer of BDO derivatives with bio-based variants of, for instance, polytetramethylene ether glycol (polytetrahydrofuran, PolyTHF) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). The first commercial quantities are expected to be available in Q1 2025.

Qore produces bio-based BDO under the QIRA brand. QIRA is made through the fermentation of plant-based sugars obtained from field corn and will be of the same quality as fossil-based BDO with the same specification.

“QIRA is the perfect drop in product, enabling the industry to switch to more sustainable alternatives fast and seamless,” explains Jon Veldhouse, CEO of Qore and continues: “By switching to QIRA the product carbon footprint (PCF) can potentially be reduced by up to 86% compared to fossil-based BDO.”

Using QIRA enables BASF to produce BDO derivatives with a PCF lower than the corresponding fossil-based chemicals. BDO derivatives based on QIRA have the same physical and technical properties compared to those based on fossil-based BDO.

We remind, BASF announced the launch of the industry’s first biomass balance offerings for plastic additives, said the company. The initial offerings, including Irganox 1010 BMBcert and Irganox 1076 FD BMBcert, are certified by TUV Nord for mass balance according to the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS). These industry-first solutions support the use of renewable feedstock to replace fossil feedstock and help BASF’s customers meet their sustainability targets.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brenntag entered an agreement to acquire Colony Gums, Inc., a US-based manufacturer of stabilizer blends and a blending services provider, said the company.

Colony Gums is a family-owned distributor headquartered in Monroe, N.C. The company has grown into a specialty ingredients supplier and blending services provider over several generations, with now more than 30 employees, servicing customers in North America. In 2022, the company reported annual sales of USD38 million.

The acquisition is expected to complement and expand Brenntag’s product portfolio and services in Life Sciences, primarily in nutrition. Closing of the transaction is expected in Q4 of 2023.

We remind, Brenntag has signed an agreement to acquire the operating business of Chemgrit cosmetics (Pty) Ltd., headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company, part of the larger Chemgrit chemicals group, is an independent specialty chemical distributor in South Africa with a focus on personal care and cleaning markets.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian oil producers supplied their first cargoes of CPC Blend crude to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in August and September, traders told Reuters, opening up a new export route as Moscow looks to find new customers and skirt Western sanctions.

Moscow has found new markets for its oil despite sanctions imposed by G7 countries since the start of the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation. The world's third largest oil exporter, Russia has rerouted most of its oil to China, India and Turkey over the past year, and has also sent cargoes to countries including Brazil, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

In August and September two Russian firms - oil major Lukoil and independent producer CenGeo - sold their oil to the UAE. Both supplied CPC Blend, a grade that is being mostly produced in Kazakhstan and supplied to global markets through Russia's Black Sea port of Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka.

However, some crude from Russia is also being added to the CPC pipeline in Russia. The tanker Pola loaded a cargo supplied by CenGeo and marketed by Dubai-based Paramount Energy Trading from Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka on Aug. 14-15, the traders said. This was offloaded at ADNOC's Ruwais refinery terminal on Sept. 14, LSEG data shows.

Early in August, Lukoil's trading arm Litasco supplied 123,000 tons of CPC Blend oil on Delta Hellas tanker also to Ruwais terminal, LSEG data shows. ADNOC declined to comment on the purchase. CenGeo, Paramount Energy and Lukoil did not reply to Reuters requests for comment.

UAE, which is itself a large producer and supplies Murban oil to international markets, sometimes imports different grades for its refineries to optimize price differences, traders said. The UAE has not imposed sanctions against Russia and is not part of the Western moves over the Ukraine war.

CPC Blend oil delivered to UAE's ports in September would be cheaper than the UAE's Murban oil, traders said. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said earlier that CPC Blend oil was not subject to sanction limitations if it was of Kazakh origin and suggested that buyers of the blend seek certificates of origin.

The U.S. warning on CPC Blend only applies to buyers which are observing sanctions. The two traders, who declined to be named, said that the CPC crude from Russia was sold at discount to Kazakh cargoes.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Industrial companies in the Netherlands get USD42-49 B in tax breaks and subsidies annually for using fossil fuels, the Dutch government said in a report aimed at spurring international debate on such subsidies, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The 'fossil subsidies' range from tax exemptions on fuels used in aviation and as input in industrial processes, to relatively low energy tax rates for industries that use large quantities of gas.

"We have mapped out how many billions of fossil subsidies are in our system. Now I'd like to know how that is in other countries. And whether we find that acceptable," outgoing climate minister Rob Jetten said in an interview with Dutch newspaper Trouw.

The overview comes amid ongoing protests by climate activists, who on Tuesday blocked a section of a major traffic artery in The Hague for the 11th straight day, demanding an immediate end to all fossil subsidies.

We remind, Russia's Sakhalin Energy, which produces liquefied natural gas and oil, has fully resumed production following maintenance. The company has said it planned maintenance in July without providing a timeframe. Sakhalin Energy's Sakhalin-2 operating company was transformed into a Russian entity via a presidential decree amid Western sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.

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