Vynova Group to Develop New Plant Complex for Alcoholates Production

Vynova Group, part of the International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), plans to invest a high double-digit million-euro amount in the construction of a plant complex for the production of all common sodium and potassium alcoholates at the Lulsdorf site in Germany, said Process-worldwide.

ICIG acquired the Lulsdorf site from Evonik earlier this year and currently produces sodium and potassium alcoholates exclusively for Evonik through its subsidiary Lulsdorf Functional Solutions (LFS). Due to regulatory requirements (UN Minamata Convention on Mercury), the LFS alcoholate production facilities will have to be closed at the end of 2027.

Alcoholates, also known as alkoxides, are used in a variety of applications, but predominantly in the production of biodiesel. With the planned investment, Vynova Group will ensure the continuous supply of the European market from local production.

Vynova Group already operates a smaller production plant for sodium methylate at its subsidiary MSSA in La Rochelle (France) with an annual capacity of 20,000 tonnes.

We remind, International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) and Vynova Group announced the appointment of Christophe Andre as new President of Vynova Group, with effect from 1 September 2021. Christophe Andre will succeed Stefan Sommer, who will retire as President of Vynova Group and assume the role of Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Vynova Holding.

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Occidental Petroleum beat analysts' third-quarter profit estimates on strong U.S. oil production, but its results were well below a year ago due to lower energy prices and weaker chemical and pipeline results, said the company.

The oil and gas company reported a USD1.18 a share profit compared to average Wall Street analyst forecasts for an 84 cent a share profit, according to LSEG. Adjusted earnings fell by more than half to USD1.13 billion compared to the same quarter last year.

U.S. oil producers are reporting weaker third-quarter profits on a drop in oil and gas prices from a year ago. But earnings are up compared to the second quarter on an improvement in prices.

Occidental sold its oil for an average $80.70 per barrel in the third quarter, down from USD83.64 per barrel from a year earlier, but up 10% from the second quarter.

It bought back USD342 million of Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKa.N) preferred shares, bringing redemptions this year to 15% of the initial USD10 billion investment by Warren Buffett's firm that was used by Occidental to fund its acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019.

We remind, Occidental Petroleum’s carbon capture, utilisation and sequestration (CCUS) subsidiary, 1PointFive, has been selected to receive a grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for the development of its South Texas Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub in Kleberg county, south of Corpus Christi. The hub is expected to include the world’s first DAC plant designed to remove up to 1m tonnes/year of carbon dioxide (CO2). The funding by the DOE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations will support the development of the DAC hub, Occidental said on Friday without disclosing financial details.

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Alpek is depolymerizing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and incorporating the monomers into a product line of Octal polyester sheet, a company director for the Mexican producer said.

Because Alpek is using monomers extracted from recycled PET, the resulting Octal sheet is virtually indistinguishable from virgin material. Recycled content gives Octal another way to stand out.

Unlike other PET sheet technologies, Octal sheet does not require a pellet step, said Alejandro Sanchez, senior director, sales and marketing, North America, PET sheet, Alpek Polyester. He made his comments on the sidelines of the Plastimagen plastic trade show in Mexico.

Instead, it has only a polymerization step and a sheet calendering step, according to Alpek. It is then ready to be shipped to thermoformers. The lack of a pellet step means that Octal PET sheet has a shorter heat history, Sanchez said. That makes it easier for the material to be recycled, since the shorter heating history prevents further degradation of properties.

Sanchez noted other benefits of the material. It has better clarity and better gauge control than polyester sheets made with different technologies. Gauge control allows Octal sheets to have more uniform thickness, he said. That, in turn, allows longer cycles and more efficient operations.

About 85% of Octal's market is in the food packaging business, he said. Some material is used in medical packaging. Alpek completed the acquisition of Octal in 2022.

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SK Chemicals and Estee Lauder Companies (ELCs) have inked a letter of intent concerning the supply of circular recycling solutions for its cosmetic container market, said Plasticsengineering.

Under the deal, SK Chemicals will supply Ecotria CR, Skypet CR, and Ecozen Claro to the company. ECLs will then develop packaging using the materials.

The companies plan to progressively increase the amount of recycled materials in their products and replace other non-recyclable materials with designs that incorporate recycled or recyclable materials.

We remind, SK Innovation will invest about Korean won (W) 1.7tr ($1.2bn) to build a plastic chemical recycling complex in Ulsan, South Korea by the second half of 2025. The complex, which is expected to have a recycling capacity of about 250,000 tonnes/year, will be built at a 215,000sqm site and will have three chemical recycling processes, namely, high-purity polypropylene (PP) extraction, depolymerisation and pyrolysis.

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PTC India has approved the bid of ONGC to purchase its subsidiary PTC Energy Ltd for Rup 925 crore, said Economictimes.

The company reported a 5.62% year-on-year increase on its consolidated net profit at Rup 135.10 crore in the quarter ended on 30 Jun 2023.

Total income was Rup 4863.46 crore, an increase from Rup 4310.74 crore a year ago. PTC Energy has commissioned wind projects with a capacity of 288.8 MW spread across Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. (1 crore=10 M, 1 lakh=100,000).

We remind, LyondellBasell, the world’s largest licensor of polyolefin technologies, announced that Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) has selected LyondellBasell’s Hostalen “Advanced Cascade Process” (Hostalen ACP) technology for a new 200 kiloton per year (KTA) high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant.

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