BASF offers sustainably certified isocyanates and polyamides

With the addition of BASF's MDI production site in Geismar, Louisiana, USA, to the ranks of ISCC PLUS and REDcert2 certified plants, BASF can now offer its global customers locally produced ISCC PLUS and/or REDcert2 certified isocyanates and polyamides, said the company.

"Our success last year demonstrates how serious we are about driving sustainable transformation across our monomers divisions and across the various customer industries we serve, that is, we are constantly striving to improve our product portfolio, which is also reflected in the fact that our products continue to meet high requirements." said Dr. Ramkumar Dhruva, President, Monomers.

"With our factories becoming certified around the world, we are now able to help our customers achieve their sustainability goals with more sustainable products, wherever they are. I'm pleased that we now also have the structure in place to provide our U.S. customers with certified, more sustainable isocyanate solutions made in the United States. Through this, we can always offer our customers the best fit for their product portfolio." added Dhruva.

Last January, BASF's monomers unit committed to developing recycling options in every major product line by 2025. Now, just one year later, the department continues to deliver on that promise.

As of February 2024, approximately 70% of the large portfolio of isocyanates, polyamides, glues and resins, precursors and inorganic products can be chemically recycled (Ccycled) or biomass balance variants2 (BMB), as LowPCF products3 or even ZERO variants (Zero Emissions, Renewable Origin). The division currently offers a total of 345 certified sustainable product alternatives to its various customer industries, including food packaging, textiles, automotive or construction, wood adhesives and more.

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A major fire has hit one of the six key trunklines that run in a single corridor from the gas-rich Yamal-Nenets autonomous region in West Siberia in Russia, said Upstreamonline.

These pipelines are responsible for delivering most of the gas produced by state-controlled Gazprom in the Yamal-Nenets region to customers in the European part of the country, and also to export destinations via the TurkStream and Blue Stream subsea pipelines in the Black Sea and a legacy pipeline across Ukraine.

Witnesses who drove along a temporary winter road in the Khanty-Mansiysk region reported seeing a fire in a remote area on the evening of 9 March, with the huge flame ball being captured on video.

The accident site was later identified by local authorities as being about 20 kilometres away from the settlement of Lykhma in the Beloyarsky district.

Unlike earlier accidents in the same area that occurred during the last two decades, local authorities this time have refused to identify which one of the six pipelines was damaged.

The Khanty-Mansiysk regional government said in a social network post that the fire was the result of “a rupture of a gas trunkline”.

A regional department of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said in a short statement on 10 March that “a fire [on the gas pipeline] occurred after its rupture and immediately went out. There were no casualties as it occurred in a deserted place”.

“There was also no damage to nature, so the intervention of fire and rescue units was not required. After the end of the fire, emergency recovery teams from a [Gazprom-managed] gas transportation enterprise started remedial work on site,” the statement continued.

The network of six parallel gas pipelines in the area is managed by a Gazprom’s subsidiary Gazpromtransgaz Yugorsk.

Gazpromtransgaz Yugorsk has been contacted for comment.

In May last year, regional authorities reported a similar accident on the Yamburg-Yelets-1 pipeline about 30 kilometres away from Lykhma, with one casualty. Four workers were taken to a hospital, with one in serious condition, regional authorities said at the time.

The other five pipelines in the same corridor are Yamburg-Yelets-2, Urengoy-Tsentr 1 & 2, Progress and Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod.

There have been several suggestions on Russian social networks of an explosion heard in the vicinity of the accident site before the fire. However, there has been no independent confirmation of external interference in this remote area more than 2300 kilometres from the Russian border with Ukraine.

Russian authorities reported the downing of several strike drones, reportedly originating from Ukraine, across various regions in the northwestern, central and southwestern regions of the country in early hours on 10 March.

Earlier, Russian researchers repeatedly pointed to the thawing of ice-rich permafrost along some stretches of the Yamburg-Yelets-1 pipeline — commissioned in 1987 — where transported natural gas had an average temperature above the melting point throughout the whole year. This in turn had created buoyancy problems that endangered the structural integrity of the pipeline.

We remind, Russia announced additional voluntary cuts in oil supply mainly in the form of production cuts rather than exports, as it faced curtailed refining capacity as well as stricter sanctions. Russia has declared plans to cut its oil output and exports by an additional 471,000 bpd in April-June in coordination with some OPEC+ participating countries.

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Australian engineering and services heavyweight Worley has won new work for Saudi Aramco, Shell and Air Products for oil, gas and hydrogen projects, said Upstreamonline.

Worley on Monday confirmed that Aramco had awarded Worley a General Engineering Services Plus (GES+) contract for an additional five years with potential for an extension of up to three 12-months increments, which renews the long-standing relationship between the Saudi state giant and Worley in relation to services provided under the GES+ contracts.

Worley’s scope includes the provision of project management and engineering services to support Aramco’s capital programmes in Saudi Arabia across onshore, green and brownfield projects in gas, oil and new energy infrastructure.

Under the terms of the contract, the Australian contractor will continue to build its in-kingdom engineering capabilities, with a focus on developing and using local talent to undertake more complex projects in Saudi Arabia.

Worley has also scooped a contract to provide detailed design, procurement and construction management support services including the integration of associated assets such as offshore wind, pipelines, electrical grids and refinery for Shell’s Holland Hydrogen 1 facility in the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands which, at completion, will be Europe’s largest commercial renewable hydrogen production facility.

Once operational, Holland Hydrogen 1 is expected to produce approximately 60,000 kilograms per day of renewable hydrogen, which will replace the grey hydrogen used in the production of fuels at Shell’s Energy and Chemicals Park, Rotterdam.

Worley’s services will be delivered through its offices in the Netherlands, with support from its global integrated delivery teams in India, while also leveraging the company’s global hydrogen subject matter expertise. Worley had previously completed the early phase engineering services for this facility.

Meanwhile, Air Products has awarded Worley an agreement to provide procurement, fabrication and modularisation services for its Net-Zero Hydrogen Energy Complex in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Once operational, Air Products said that the net-zero complex will produce clean hydrogen and capture and permanently sequester carbon dioxide emissions.

Under this agreement, Worley’s adjacent Edmonton, Canada, modularisation yard will fabricate and assemble process and pipe rack modules, implementing automated pipe-cutting techniques and robotic welding.

None of the values, or potential values, of these contracts was divulged.

We remind, Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant, has officially lifted the force majeure on the supply of phenol and acetone to Deer Park, Texas, USA. According to market sources, the line, boasting a substantial capacity of 363,000 tonnes of phenol and 225,000 tonnes of acetone annually, has resumed full operational status. The declaration of force majeure, made in mid-October the previous year, had stemmed from a technical malfunction that temporarily disrupted the supply chain.

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Japan-headquartered Sumitomo Electric Industries has placed a multi-million-pound order for cable storage carousels for its power cable factory in Scotland, said the company.

The equipment will be designed and built at THREE60’s manufacturing facilities in Glasgow and the company will work with the Scottish supply chain on manufacturing, fabrication, and transportation support.

A range of different cable storage carousels will be delivered to the Nigg facility, ranging from 250T to 400T, with two loading arm options.

The project is set to take place over the next two-and-a-half years with delivery of the first carousel components planned in mid-2025. The components will then be assembled and tested by THREE60 technicians and engineers on site.

“We are extremely pleased that THREE60 has been chosen by Sumitomo to manufacture equipment for its landmark investment in Scotland, and are proud that our winning proposal has Scottish engineering and manufacturing at its heart,” said Walter Thain, Group CEO at THREE60 Energy.

“As an employer of over 400-staff in Scotland and 1000-staff worldwide, we are delighted to support this project which will bring a whole host of employment opportunities and economic benefits to our region and we are excited to get started.”

THREE60’s pursuit of the opportunity was supported by the economic development agency Scottish Enterprise as part of its responsibility for delivering on Scottish Government strategies for international trade and inward investment.

We remind, Sumitomo Chemical has decided to close down its production facilities for cyclohexanone (also known as anone) at its Ehime Works located in Niihama City, Ehime, Japan and exit the business, said the company. The closure of the production facilities is scheduled for the end of March 2024.

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Industrial gas supplier Air Liquide and infrastructure provider Vopak have joined forces to look into the development and operation of infrastructure for ammonia import, cracking, and hydrogen distribution in Singapore, said Offshore-energy.

The companies have formalized their intention through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which they will study and explore the joint development of low-carbon ammonia supply chains in Singapore.

This includes the potential development of ammonia cracking facilities, associated ammonia storage and handling infrastructure at Vopak’s Banyan terminal, and the distribution of low-carbon hydrogen through a hydrogen pipeline network.

According to Air Liquide and Vopak, this collaboration aims to support Singapore’s National Hydrogen Strategy, focusing on driving advanced hydrogen technologies with high commercial readiness to establish low-carbon hydrogen supply chains.

Zhang Xi, Southeast Asia Cluster Vice President, and Managing Director of Air Liquide Singapore, said: “Air Liquide is committed to partnering with industry partners, such as Vopak, to offer innovative and sustainable solutions in support of Singapore’s decarbonisation efforts. Air Liquide’s industrial-scale ammonia (NH3) cracking pilot plant is under construction in Belgium. We are proud to apply our expertise to crack low-carbon ammonia into low-carbon hydrogen, aimed at reducing carbon emissions in industrial basins and hard-to-abate sectors, advancing towards a more sustainable future.”

Rob Boudestijn, President of Vopak Singapore, added: “Hydrogen and ammonia have the potential to significantly contribute to Singapore’s transition towards a low-carbon economy. As Singapore gears up for receiving and handling ammonia for power generation and bunkering, cracking of ammonia into hydrogen presents an additional application to help the industry shift to lower carbon feedstock. We are excited about collaborating with Air Liquide to accelerate the adoption and commercialization of industrial ammonia cracking in Singapore.”

Vopak Singapore is a joint venture (JV) between Royal Vopak (69.5%) and PSA International Pte Ltd (30.5%) that operates five terminals with a combined storage capacity of more than 3 million cubic meters.

The JV’s Banyan terminal is an integrated oil, chemical, and gas hybrid storage terminal with a storage capacity of close to 1.5 million cubic meters. The terminal is strategically located on Jurong Island.

In October 2022, Vopak Singapore said it was contemplating the expansion of its ammonia storage infrastructure for low-carbon power generation and bunker fuels at the Banyan terminal. At the time, the company reported it had completed the conceptual design of the planned expansion and had commenced the quantitative risk assessment study.

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