Hengyuan Refining flags revenue impact after cracking unit shutdown

Hengyuan Refining Co. expects an unplanned shutdown of its long residue catalytic cracking unit (LRCCU) to impact its revenue, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Hengyuan, a subsidiary of China's Shandong Hengyuan Petrochemical Co., said it planned to shut down the unit for inspection and repairs after a leakage was found at its carbon monoxide boiler on Wednesday. The LRCCU processes residue fuel into gasoline and light cycle oil.

Production at the Port Dickson-based refinery on Malaysia's west coast will be affected during the shutdown. "Given current uncertainties, the financial impact of this incident cannot be reliably estimated at this point, but is expected to be material for the company," Hengyuan said. The company said it would implement measures to ensure there was no major disruption of production supply to its customers during the shutdown.

Hengyuan has offered up to two 15,000-metric ton (t) cargoes of straight-run fuel oil to load in the first 10 days of July, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, attributing the sale to the unit's outage. The company has sought to buy at least one 15,000-t cargo each of gasoil and 95-octane gasoline for prompt delivery in the next two weeks, a third source who received the enquiry said.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its fuel sale and purchase. The Port Dickson refinery has a crude processing capacity of 120,000 bpd, according to the company website.

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Arkema announces a breakthrough in new manufacturing processes that integrate up to 40% post-consumer recycled content from end-of-life packaging products into its powder coating resins, said the company.

Powder coating is a solvent-free, low-waste technology, which can now be made more circular by including recycled content. Arkema's new recycled based powder resin innovation uses post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) coming from end-of-life packaging as an alternative to traditional fossil-based raw materials to create products containing up to 40% recycled PET and reducing PCF (Product Carbon Footprint) by up to 20%.

"Alongside our bio-based and mass balance offers, increasingly incorporating recycled feedstocks is another step towards ensuring more circular high-performance solutions and a more sustainable lifestyle. Arkema's new recycled based powder resins further enrich sustainable solutions for our partners, enabling end markets to increase the percentage of recycled content in their finished products," said Richard Jenkins, SVP and member of the Executive Committee.

We remind, Arkema built a polyamide 11 (PA11) plant at its site in Changshu, China. The plant was launched in the first quarter of 2023. Investments in the project amounted to USD450 million.

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Vynova announced the launch of a research & development programme to further advance PVC recycling and help the PVC value chain accelerate towards circularity, said the company.

Vynova’s innovation efforts focus on technologies to remove heavy metals from dissolved rigid post-consumer PVC waste such as used window profiles or pipes.

PVC is widely used in numerous long-lasting and durable applications and can be repeatedly mechanically recycled without any significant loss of key properties. Over the past 20 years, the European Vinyls value chain has been successful in the large-scale implementation of mechanical recycling processes, with more than 700,000 tonnes of PVC recycled in Europe every year. However, due to the long lifespan of PVC applications such as windows or pipes, PVC waste often still contains additives that were used in production decades ago, but have since been proactively phased out by the European Vinyls industry. In order to ensure full compliance with existing and potential future restrictions related to such legacy additives, innovative solutions are required.

To help realize this goal, Vynova has launched an R&D programme comprising both internal research efforts and collaborations with academic institutions. One of these collaborations is focused on removing heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium, from end-of-life rigid PVC products through a combination of dissolution and membrane filtration technologies. If the current research efforts are successful in providing expanded, viable recycling options for the European PVC industry, Vynova will move towards industrialisation of these technologies by 2030.

“In the last few years, we have explored various technology options to contribute to improved PVC circularity. This R&D programme aims to complement and further build on existing mechanical recycling technologies. We look forward to continue engaging with value chain partners and contribute to their circular PVC ambitions,” comments Rudy Miller, Vice President Vinyls Business and Head of Circularity at Vynova.

“Sustainability is at the core of our strategy and our mission of offering solutions that bring the benefits of chemistry to society while preserving the planet’s climate, environment and resources. Our efforts to advance PVC recycling are another sign of that commitment to sustainability leadership. In recent years, we have also launched our broad VynoEcoSolutions® offering of ISCC PLUS-certified products with a low CO2 footprint, such as circular, bio-circular and renewable energy-derived PVC as well as renewable energy-derived caustic soda and potassium hydroxide. More recently, our Mazingarbe site in France became the first PVC production site in the world to receive the Operation Clean Sweep certification. In March 2024, we were also awarded an EcoVadis Platinum Rating, placing us in the top 1% of over 130,000 companies assessed for their sustainability performance,” concludes Vynova CEO Christophe Andre.

According to the ScanPlast, at the end of 2023, the estimated consumption of unmixed PVC in Russia (excluding exports to Belarus) amounted to 986,590 tonnes, which is 11% more than in 2022. The emulsion and suspension PVC markets showed an increase in demand, but the largest increase in demand was for emulsion.

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Ineos’ olefins and polymers (O&P) USA division and electricity supplier NextEra Energy Resources LLC (Juno Beach, Fla.) have broken ground on the Ineos Hickerson solar project, a 310-megawatt solar project in Bosque County, Tex., said the company.

“The entire output of this…project will be dedicated to Ineos O&P USA, aiming to cover the net purchased electricity load for all 14 of the business’s manufacturing, fractionation and storage facilities in the US,” Ineos said in a statement.

The project, which will be constructed, owned, and operated by NextEra Energy, is expected to produce 730,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year. It is expected to begin commercial operation in late 2025.

Ineos and NextEra Energy signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) related to the project in December 2022.

“This solar project is a crucial step in our global efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of INEOS businesses,” said Ineos O&P USA CEO Mike Nagle.

We remind, Ineos Styrolution will close a plant in Sarnia (Canada) with a capacity of 445 thousand tons per year. The company will cease operations by June 2026. The decision to close the plant followed an order by Canada's Environment Minister to impose strict controls on benzene emissions at the plant. This is due to complaints from the indigenous population about the level of benzene emissions. However, Harrington does not link the plant's closure to the current situation.

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BASF SE said Encina Development Group, LLC (The Woodlands, Texas) will supply chemically recycled circular benzene derived from post-consumer end-of-life plastics to BASF as a raw material for its broad Ccycled product portfolio, said the company.

The long-term supply agreement will enable BASF to integrate more chemically recycled, circular-based raw materials into its production processes, the company said.

“The use of benzene derived from post-consumer plastics as raw material in BASF’s value chains underscores our ongoing commitment to transition towards non-fossil and circular alternatives. Through our partnership with Encina, we drive BASF’s transformation by increasing recycling-based feedstocks to offer more Ccycled products to our customers, for example in the packaging, textile and automotive industries,” said Thomas Ohlinger, vice president/traded products at BASF.

Encina is a manufacturer of International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus certified circular chemicals are key ingredients in the production of everyday and novel plastics, BASF said. Encina’s proprietary catalytic technology produces drop-in quality and high yield circular feedstocks, BASF added.

“BASF’s approach toward achieving circularity encompasses the increasing use of recycled and renewable feedstocks, shaping new material cycles and creating new business models. The collaboration with Encina exemplifies BASF’s dedication to implementing cutting-edge solutions to accelerate the feedstock transformation,” BASF said.

In the production of BASF’s Ccycled products, conventional fossil raw materials are replaced with recycled feedstock from the chemical recycling of plastic waste along BASF’s integrated production chain, the company said, adding that the corresponding share of recycled feedstock is attributed to the specific Ccycled product through a certified mass balance approach.

We remind, BASF plans to invest in the expansion of its additive manufacturing plant at its site in Nanjing, China. In particular, the company has planned to create a modern line for the production of highly effective dispersants for controlled free radical polymerization of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. The new line is planned to be launched by the end of 2025.

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