Plastic park to be set up in Dahej, India
Some 30 plastic manufacturers in and around India’s commercial capital Mumbai plan to invest about US$134 million in a plastic park under construction in Dahej, Gujarat.
“Gujarat is emerging as a major plastic hub. Currently, about 70 percent of the raw material used in the plastic industry in India is being manufactured in Gujarat,” said Manish Dedhia, secretary of the All India Plastics Manufacturers Association (AIPMA).
Gujarat Industrial Development Corp. allotted part of a 200-acre parcel to AIPMA for the plastics park.
“This land has been allotted for the first phase of the project. We are planning to apply for another 300 acres in the second phase,” Dedhia said.
The manufacturers that plan to build there include injection molders, blow molders, extruders and masterbatch makers.
About 150 companies in the plastic sector may be interested in Gujarat. “Dahej is very near to port, offers very cheap land compared to Maharashtra, moreover, Dahej is a petrochemical hub and also provides uninterrupted power supply,” Dedhia said.
Dow boosting additive capacity in Scotland
Dow Plastics Additives, a business unit of Dow Chemical Co., is constructing additional plant to expand its capacity to manufacture methyl-methacrylate butadiene styrene (MBS)-based additives at its Grangemouth, Scotland, facility.
The additives in question are ParaloidBTA impact modifiers for PVC used in rigid packaging applications, and Paraloid EXL additives for engineering resins used in consumer durables and transport applications.
The expansion, which will increase Dow’s capacity for MBS-based additives by 10,000 metric tons per year and serve customers globally, is expected to become fully operational during the fourth quarter of 2011.
Ruby Chandy, managing director of Dow Plastics Additives, said: “With this expansion, Dow is increasing not only the total capacity, but also the technical capabilities of the plant to produce the most sophisticated MBS products in the world for our customers.
“The timing of this capacity increase will help us keep pace with increasing global demand for quality MBS additives.”
Huntsman frustrated by slow approval for China expansion
Getting approval for doubling capacity at its methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) site in China is proving a protracted process for Huntsman Corp.
CEO Peter Huntsman expressed his frustration at the slow pace of the permitting process in an Aug. 4 conference call to discuss the company’s second quarter results.
Huntsman believes other companies may be going through the same slow process –“a permitting process that has been at a snail’s pace,” he said, adding “I don’t believe that our permitting process is any different from anybody else’s.”
“We are still working at over a year, just to get the environmental permitting,” he emphasized.
At Caojing, on the outskirts of Shanghai, Huntsman has a 240,000 metric ton per year MDI plant, set up as a joint venture with Shanghai Chemical Chlor-Alkali Chemical Co. Ltd. The company said in March 2009 that it was starting work on the environmental assessments to set up a second identical MDI unit.
“This is just my personal opinion, I believe that a lot of these announced expansions in Asia, particularly in China, are going to be coming on substantially later than what some in the market have been publishing and had been speculating,” Huntsman said during the call.
Amyris and Kuraray to develop Biofene polymers
Amyris Inc. and Kuraray Co. Ltd. have agreed to develop polymers from Biofene, a renewable hydrocarbon building block made using technology from Amyris.
Kuraray will use Biofene to replace petroleum-derived feedstock such as butadiene and isoprene in the production of specific polymers. If the process is successful, the companies plan to enter into an exclusive supply agreement.
“We are confident the new Biofenepolymer products will become important additions to our product portfolio and be an integral part of our growth strategy,” said Yasuhiro Yamamoto, director and senior executive officer of Osaka, Japan-based Kuraray, in a news release.
Qingdao Haijing to use Ineos PVC technology
Qingdao Haijing Chemical Group Ltd. will use PVC and vinyl chloride monomer production technologies from Ineos Group at its new plant in Qingdao, China.
Lyndhurst-based Ineos announced that the 400,000 metric ton per year VCM plant and the 300,000 metric ton per year suspension PVC resin plant are scheduled to start up in 2013.
The plant is being built in the Dongjia-kou Pro Port Industrial Zone.
Dow’s UNIPOL™ Polypropylene Technology selected for new PP Project in China
Shandong Shenda Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (Shenda), has chosen UNIPOL™ Polypropylene Process Technology from The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) for its new 200,000 tpa methanol-based polypropylene plant to manufacture homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers. Shandong Shenda is the first private company licensee in China and the seventh licensee of UNIPOL PP Process Technology overall. Shenda is a private company controlled by Legend Holdings Limited.
There are around 46 manufacturing units globally using UNIPOL™ Polypropylene Technology from Dow. The UNIPOL Polypropylene Process is an all gas-phase process for producing the broadest range of polypropylene resins. Its simple design is consistent in terms of product quality and energy efficiency, requiring no equipment for handling, separating or recycling solvents. The system’s fluidized-bed reactors and high performance CONSISTA™ Catalyst Systems and SHAC™ Catalyst Systems give manufacturers the flexibility to produce homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers. Resins produced by UNIPOL™. “We are excited to contribute to the growing polypropylene market in China with UNIPOL Polypropylene Technology at our Shandong facility,” said Mr. Shao Bo, general manager of Shenda. “With this technology, Dow is giving us the opportunity to offer a variety of polypropylene resins to convertors in China and around the globe.”
India’s JBF to build 390,000 tpa PET Plant at BP’s Geel site
BP PLC and Indian polyester manufacturer JBF Group have inked a deal for feedstock supply by the UK energy giant to a new manufacturing unit to be built by JBF, as per Dow Jones Newswire. The long-term supply deal is for BP-produced purified terephthalic acid (PTA), which will be used by JBF in the manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The new 390,000 tpa facility will be located on BP’s existing petrochemical complex in Geel, Belgium adjacent to a BP production site in Belgium. Costs of building the new facility would be borne by JBF.
Mayor wants to ban bags before London Olympics
Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has added fuel to the plastic bag debate with talk of banning free carrier bags from the capital by the start of the 2012 Olympics.
“Plastics bags are an unnecessary scourge on our environment and I’ve set out my ambition to make London a plastic bag-free city,” he told the Daily Mail. “Whilst London doesn’t have the powers to implement bans or charges, I am keenly following Wales’s efforts to solve this problem.”
Johnson, who claimed that carrier bags “disfigure ditches,” can’t introduce a London-wide ban on free carrier bags without an act of Parliament.
Mexico rejects plastic bag bans, embraces industry plan to boost recycling
In the space of a couple of years, Mexico’s largely pro-recycling plastics industry has outwitted bag ban proponents in the Mexican capital and is taking the fight to the provinces and South America.
“Mexico is winning the battle against ‘bagophobes’ and the biodegradable lobby,” Eduardo de la Tijera, a consultant and former president of the Mexican plastics industry association (Anipac), told Plastics News on Aug. 3.
“It’s a victory for common sense and for those who know it’s better to recycle than to biodegrade,” said Juan Antonio Hernández, president of Industriales de Bolsas Plásticas de México AC (Inboplast), a group of 40 companies which make 60 percent of the plastic bags produced in Mexico.
In March 2009, Mexico City’s 66-member Legislative Assembly amended its Solid Waste Law, ordaining it illegal for all commercial outlets in the capital to give away plastic bags that were not biodegradable after Aug. 18, 2010.
Heavy fines and even jail time for transgressors were introduced, although they have never been applied, as Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard appeared unimpressed by the legislation.
Lobbyists, including De la Tijera and Hernández, plus representatives from retailers association Antad, kept pressuring not only the legislature but the capital’s environment minister Martha Teresa Delgado Peralta.
Speculation was rife Delgado was leaning towards recycling to solve the city’s worsening garbage disposal problem. In late July, she published a list of norms for the industry in the capital’s Official Gazette. It favors recycling over the use of biodegradable processes.
“I’m very pleased because everything we proposed was accepted,” said De la Tijera, a co-owner of Grupo Texne, of Mexico City. “I was in charge of writing down the proposals and 99 percent of what I wrote is in the norms.
”For example, he said, oxy-biodegradable and biodegradable bag makers will have to prove the degrading properties of their additives at Mexican, rather than foreign, laboratories.
At least 10 percent of the content of plastic bags distributed to shoppers in the capital must be recycled material, a percentage that is already standard within the Mexican plastic bag industry, according to De la Tijera.
Morelia, Michoacan-based Hernández said Inboplast’s partners have raised the percentage of recycled material in their bags from 18 to 25 percent in just six months. Their target is 40 percent.
Inboplast, which has monthly sales of $93 million and employs 10,000, according to Hernández, put a $2.1 million recycling plant in the municipality of Arandas, in the western state of Jalisco, on stream in January.
The norms, which also oblige store owners to promote garbage separation, will be applicable from next July.
As for the bag ban legislation, “it’s completely dead and there’s no chance that it will be revived, despite the resistance of some legislators,” De la Tijera said.
He described it as a victory for Inboplast and Antad (Asociación Nacional de Tiendas de Autoservicio y Departamentales AC).
“Anipac merely aligned with the proposal that Inboplast and Antad put to the ministry. The norms focus first and foremost on sustainable production and consumption.”
However, Hernández is still worried that “politicians and some ecologists don’t understand the process of transforming plastics and are taken in by the romantic and false claims made about biodegradable additives… You can’t make policy from behind a desk.”
De la Tijera believes many state and municipal governments, that often follow the capital’s lead on legislation, will now change their anti-recycling attitudes.
“Inboplast has already spoken to legislators in at least half a dozen states about focusing on sustainable production instead of bans and biodegradable bags.
“Mexico is winning the battle against ‘bagophobes’ and the biodegradable lobby, as opposed to what is happening in the United States and South America. We can defeat bans.
”He said across the region “governments are following what’s happening in Mexico very closely.”
Comments: We are delighted to read about the success that the Mexican Plastic Bag Associations have achieved by engaging the minister and administration in a fact based dialogue to reverse a bag ban legislation. Yes there would be lessons to learn not only by American associations but over 40 or 50 national plastic associations facing ban legislation which are being forced by politicians from Canada to China, India to Italy and Middle East to Malaysia. Governments that overlook scope of doing more with less using plastics & the huge benefits of recycling waste are being mislead by degradable material lobbies which promise waste disappearance as a panacea to litter problems. In the long run if our finite resources must be conserved for sustainable development & environment burdens of alternative materials accessed, policy makers will have to consider LCA studies and attacking people’s litter habits before banning all plastic bags erroneously. More details of the Mexico story would be definitely welcome.
Solutia adding PVB resin capacity in Malaysia
Solutia Inc. is adding a polyvinyl butyral (PVB) resin plant at its Kuantan, Malaysia, facility, in order to better serve the Asia Pacific markets.
The new capacity will be used to cost-effectively meet the increasing demand for Saflex sheet produced by Solutia’s two manufacturing lines in Suzhou, China, said Eric Nichols, president and general manager of Advanced Interlayers division, in a news release.
The advances in resin technology have resulted in scalable, less capital-intensive plants that fully leverage Solutia’s 80-year history of developing PVB technologies, he added.
The Kuantan location is recognized for its efficient operations, high-quality workforce and ability to serve the broader region’s rapidly growing markets, the company said. Kuantan is also home to Solutia’s Crystex insoluble sulfur manufacturing facility, the largest of its kind in the world.
The Kuantanresin plant is the third in a series of investments in the region to meet the demand of the burgeoning laminated glass market across Asia Pacific.
In 2007, Solutia opened the Suzhou plant, the fifth manufacturing site for its Saflex PVB interlayers. In 2010, Solutia announced the addition of a second PVB manufacturing line in the Suzhou plant, featuring enhanced capabilities to serve the architectural, photovoltaic and automotive markets in China and the Asia Pacific region. The Suzhou site is also home to a new Saflex customer service testing lab, dedicated to supporting laminated glass customers in the region.
Solutia’s Saflex interlayers are used in nearly 40 percent of laminated architectural and automotive glass worldwide, and they are also used to encapsulate thin film photovoltaic solar cells.
Solutia manufactures Saflex PVB interlayers in Gent, Belgium; Santo Toribio, Mexico; San Jose Dos Campos, Brazil; Springfield, Mass., USA; and Suzhou, China.
In the second quarter, the Advanced Interlayers division’s net sales totaled $232 million, an increase of $24 million or 12 percent from the same period in 2010, and adjusted EBITDA increased $8 million to $52 million.
“The second quarter reflects the global strength of the Advanced Interlayers business, highlighting the diversity of end markets and further penetration of innovative, premium products,” said James R. Voss, executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Dow expands production of solar films
Dow Chemical Co. is adding capacity for its Enlight-brand polyolefin encapsulant films in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, and Schkopau, Germany.
The films are used in solar panels. According to Dow, the company will build two new manufacturing plants next year that will more than triple the company’s capacity to make the specialty films.
“Converting solar energy into an efficient source of electricity is an area of expertise Dow will continue to develop,” says Brij Sinha, global market manager for photovoltaics, said in a news release. He said demand for photovoltaic modules has been growing at about 30 percent annually.
Dow started making the films at its Findlay, Ohio, plant in December 2010.
Dow settles with EPA, to pay $2.5 million penalty
MIDLAND, MICH. (Aug. 1, 1:55 p.m. ET) –The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Dow Chemical Co. has agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act at its chemical manufacturing and research complex in Midland.
According to EPA, Dow violated the Clean Water Act’s prohibition against discharging pollutants without a permit and violated the RCRA’s requirements for hazardous waste generators. The company violated the Clean Air Act requirements for monitoring and repairing leaking equipment and for failing to comply with reporting and recordkeeping requirements
The violations stemmed from four site visits between August 2005 and August 2006, and a clean air inspection in March 2007 –all at the Midland facility.
“This compliance program should serve as a model for industry and will go a long way to assure future violations will not happen again at this facility,”said Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Department of Justice, in a statement. “Dow worked cooperatively with the government to resolve this matter and in doing so set an example for responsible compliance with our nation’s environmental laws.
DAK prepares to close on Wellman PET deal
DAK Americas LLC expects to close on the acquisition of Wellman Inc.’s PET resins business by the end of this month.
The deal includes facilities in Bay St. Louis, Miss., that employ 165.
DAK announced Aug. 1 that the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act has expired without request for additional information from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
DAK has U.S. PET plants in Wilmington, N.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Charleston, S.C., and Columbia, S.C.
IPIC Secures Cepsa’s International Expansion; Al Qubaisi Becomes CEO
International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC; Abu Dhabi) says it plans to boost the growth and international expansion of Compañía Española de Petróleos (Cepsa; Madrid), following IPIC’s acquisition of Total’s 48.83% stake in Cepsa for €3.7 billion ($5 billion). The board of Cepsa, has following the acquisition, appointed IPIC’s managing director Khadem Al Qubaisi as Cepsa’s CEO. Santiago Bergareche will continue as chairman of the board of Cepsa. “We are in the final process of a change in the company’s shareholding structure, which will culminate with the sale of the minority shareholdings on 19 August,” Bergareche says. After that IPIC will be Cepsa’s only shareholder. Al Qubaisi has “repeatedly confirmed his commitment to guarantee and promote [Cepsa’s] growth and international expansion,” Bergareche says. The changes will consolidate Cepsa’s leadership position in Spain’s energy sector and transform the company into a global player.
The changes in shareholding structure have also led to other new appointments at Cepsa. The board has appointed Cepsa’s Chief Technology Officer, Pedro Miró, to the newly-created post of COO, while five Total directors have been replaced by three new board members, Mohamed Badaway Al Husseiny, Hamdan Al Hamed, and James Sullivan. Cepsa will continue to be a Spanish company headquartered in Madrid. Miró will be responsible for Cepsa’s E&P, marketing and refining, and petrochemicals operations.
IPIC has been a shareholder in Cepsa since 1988 when it bought a 9.6% stake in the Spanish company. In 2009, it purchased Banco Santander’s and Union Fenosa’s stakes in a deal that raised IPIC’s stake in Cepsa to 47.1%. IPIC’s total investment in Cepsa has been put at some €7.5 billion, making it the most important investment within IPIC’s current portfolio, as well as one of the biggest investments made in Spain during the last few years, Cepsa says. Cepsa stands to benefit from the synergies with IPIC companies, which in the petrochemicals field, include Borealis and Borouge, as well as Nova Chemicals.
The European Commission last month cleared IPIC’s acquisition of Cepsa, despite overlaps in the markets for phenol and acetone. Both Cepsa and Borealis, in which IPIC has a 64% stake, produce phenol and acetone. However, the commission’s investigation concluded that IPIC’s and Cepsa’s combined market shares are moderate and that a number of credible competitors will remain active in these markets.
Formosa Closes 28 Plants Following Fires; Market Disruptions Expected (update)
Formosa Plastics has been ordered to close 28 major manufacturing facilities at Mailiao, Taiwan following the seventh fire to break out there in recent weeks, local sources tell CW. The latest fire occured on July 30. The closures, for an unspecified period of time to allow a thorough inspection of all of the facilities by third parties, are expected to cause major market disruptions, particularly in Asia, CW has learned. They come after Taiwan’s President Ma requested that the government asses the difficulties at the Mailiao site. The government made four decisions: all of the production facilities and sites where the seven fires occurred should be shut down for inspection; all of the pressure vessels that are made of the same materials that were used in the propylene desulfurization reactor that ignited in the latest incident should be listed and filed by the Industry Development Bureau (IDB; Taipei) within one week; Formosa should plan separately for successive shutdown inspection of all of the units within the complex within one year; and all of the inspections should be verified and supervised by third parties. A five-member team of experts from refinery and petrochemical company CPC (Taipei), working with the IDB team, is currently helping to assess the situation.
Formosa’s four subsidiaries, Formosa Petrochemical Corp., Formosa Plastics, Formosa Chemical & Fiber, and Nan Ya Plastics have closed a total of 28 plants. Formosa Petrochemical shuttered 10 plants including three oil refinery lines; the No. 1 ethylene plant, designed to produce 700,000 m.t./year of ethylene; a lube base oil unit; a fuel oil hydrodesulfurization facility; and a catalytic cracking unit.
Formosa Plastics has closed three plants: a vinyl chloride monomer unit; a high-density polyethylene plant; and a methyl methacrylate facility. Nan Ya Plastics shuttered 10 plants including four ethylene glycol (EG) plants, an isononanol facility, a 2-ethyl hexanol plant, two butanediol facilities, and a bishenol A unit.Formosa Chemical & Fiber closed five plants including its No. 1 aromatics complex, two styrene plants, and two polycarbonate facilities.
The latest fire occurred in the third line within the Formosa Petrochemical refinery. A propylene desulfurization reactor exploded and the leak, coupled with the high temperature, caused a “big fire,” one source says. The accident led to the resignations of Formosa Group president C. Y. Su and Wilfred Wong, chairman of Formosa Petrochemical. It is not clear at this time who will succeed Su. The group is currently led by William W. Wong, elder brother of Wilfred Wong.
Of Formosa’s olefin facilities, only the steam cracker No. 3, which is designed to produce 1.2 million m.t./year of ethylene is still running but it too is scheduled to be taken off line this month for a planned, early turnaround, CW has learned. Analysts have expressed concerns about the implications for Formosa. “We expect the fire to weigh on the share prices of the Formosa sisters in the near term,” says Jeremy Chen and Lily Chen, analysts at Morgan Stanley (Taipei). Formosa safety record has been tarnished and investor confidence in its management is fading, they say. The stock price of the four members of the Formosa Group plummeted NT$200 billion ($6.9 billion) yesterday.
The impact of the 28 plant shutdowns on petrochemical markets is potentially huge. Formosa Plastics is the second-largest producer of polyvinyl chloride and the Nan Ya subsidiary is among the top four makers of EG. Formosa Chemicals and Fibre, meanwhile, is a major global player in purified terephthalic acid.
The accidents have also cast doubt on Formosa’s expansion plans. The company announced plans earlier to expand the third cracker by 500,000 m.t./year and construct several facilities as part of a fifth wave of expansion. These plans included entry into new product areas including several types of synthetic rubber. Formosa has since relocated the project to its site at Ningbo, China.
Different source for same news: Formosa’s Polyethylene and EVA plants shut
Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) has shut its polyethylene (PE) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) units at Mailiao complex as a cautionary measure following a fire at the site late on 26 July.
The affected facilities comprise a 264,000 tpa linear low density PE (LLDPE) plant, a 350,000 tpa high density PE (HDPE) unit and a 240,000 tpa low density PE (LDPE)/EVA swing plant. Duration of the shutdown remains unclear.
UOP Technology Selected for Propylene Plant in China
UOP, a Honeywell subsidiary, says that it has been selected by Zhejiang Julong Petrochemical Co., to provide technology for a new plant to produce propylene at Zhejiang Julong’sfacility at Pinghu, Zhejiang province, China. The plant is expected to start up in 2013 and will produce 450,000 m.t./year of propylene. UOP will provide engineering design, technology licensing, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, staff training and technical service for the project. China’s propylene consumption accounts for more than 15% of worldwide demand and is growing at about 5%/year-6%/year, UOP says.
Zhejiang Julong Petrochemical is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zhengjiang Changjiang Energy Development Co. (Wenzhou, Zhejiang province). The new propane dehydrogenation unit at the Pinghu facility will use UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology to convert propane to propylene.
JX Nippon Oil & Energy and SK Innovation jointly produce petrochemicals and lubricating oils
Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp will cooperate for a new venture in petrochemicals and lubricating oils with SK Innovation Co of South Korea, as per Nikkei Business Daily. A total of 120 bln yen (US$1.52 bln) will be invested in two new production ventures at SK’s refinery complex in Ulsan, South Korea, of which JX Energy will invest over 50 billion yen.
The new petrochemicals and lubricants factories will be located at SK innovations’ refinery complex in Ulsan with an investment outlay of 90 billion yen. For petrochemicals, the JX Holdings Inc unit will form a 50:50 venture with SK Global Chemical Co, a unit of SK Innovation. Production of paraxylene at the 1 mln tpa plant, is expected to come online sometime in 2014. This will be one of the largest PX plants in the world.
Sipchem invests over SR 150 million in a new center for Research and Development
The Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) announced that it has spent over SR150 mln to construct its corporate Research and Product & Application Center -at the Dhahran Techno Valley (DTV) of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). Sipchem has previously signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals for the establishment of the center on a 15000 square meters area at DTV. Based on this memorandum Sipchem shall construct, manage and operate this center.Sipchem has already started the construction of the center at the site. The center has been designed on the most modern building designs that contain state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment with the objective of developing the usage of polymer products and the downstream industries in the Kingdom which currently include more than 860 plants. The company targets to start operation of the center in the middle of 2012. The center will work in close coordination with various organizations in the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and with an objective to render science and technology and chemistry and polymers technology handy to everybody school and university students in particular, to make them aware of the importance of polymers and chemical industries and the job opportunities that these industries may create. To build the knowledge economy that the Kingdom strives to achieve, it is necessary that that the Saudi youth, men and women alike, be trained and enlightened on scientific, research and engineering aspects and this is the role that the Sipchem center is expected to play. The center is expected to concentrate its research on the basic usage of the films which are used in the production of solar cells and thin sheets for agricultural usages, flexible pipes necessary for wooden and paper industries, dyes and electric cables including fiber optic cables and other products that support the national program for the development of industrial complexes. The center will also contribute to enhancing the cooperation in the field of research through the use of laboratories, equipment and the exchange of experiences between the university and other research centers in the Kingdom and Sipchem organization.
Gevo to build hydrocarbon processing demo plant at Silsbee, Texas
Gevo Inc. has announced plans to work with South Hampton Resources, Inc., a subsidiary of Arabian American Development Co, to build a hydrocarbon processing demonstration plant outside of Houston in Silsbee, Texas. This demonstration plant is expected to process up to 10,000 gallons/month of Gevo’s isobutanol into a variety of renewable hydrocarbon materials including jet fuel for engine testing, isooctane for gasoline, isooctene and paraxylene for polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Gevo will supply other potential customers with material for product qualification and evaluation. The demonstration plant is slated for completion before the end of 2011. The contract between the companies is for two years with one-year extensions thereafter. “This demonstration plant allows us to complete the value chain from isobutanol to renewable hydrocarbon fuels and chemical intermediates which is one of our key strategic objectives,” said Patrick Gruber, Ph.D., CEO of Gevo. “With the operation of this plant, Gevo intends to demonstrate its fully integrated biorefinery –going from renewable carbohydrates all the way to fungible hydrocarbon materials used across the refining and petrochemical industries. We expect this plant to showcase the value of our renewable hydrocarbons and drive future customer demand.”South Hampton Resources, Inc. has contracted to provide Gevo with toll-manufacturing services at its Silsbee, TX facility and complete the final design and engineering package for the demonstration plant from preliminary plans supplied by Gevo.
BASF to Expand Polystyrene Board Production 17%
BASF plans to expand its production of its extruded polystyrene insulation material Styrodur® C for rigid foam panels (XPS) at Ludwigshafen, Germany by about 17% to 1.52 million cu meters, up from its current production capacity of 1.3 million cu meters. The new capacity is slated to start-up at the end of 2011.
“By increasing our capacity we are aiming to establish our new XPS products, which represent a major advance in insulation performance and processing, within the construction sector in the long run, says Giorgio Greening, head of BASF’s global business unit Foams.“The demand for energy-efficient building insulation products rises continuously,”he says. The European XPS market is currently growing by 3-5%/year, driven by rising energy prices and legal regulations on thermal insulation in new and old buildings.
The new production capacity will feature manufacturing technology that will enable BASF to produce its new XPS products Styrodur Neo and Styrodur HT products as well as its standard XPS products. The plant extension is incorporated into the existing production structure, but will have a more elaborate configuration and will operate using an optimized method, the company says.
Styrodur C is pressure-resistant, water-repellent and rot-proof. It has been protecting homes against heat, cold and moisture for more than 45 years, BASF says. Styrodur Neo, a gray XPS with integrated graphite particles, shows a 20% higher insulation performance than competitive materials, the company adds.
Sasol Secures Majority of Gevo’s Isobutanol Through 2013
Isobutanol producer Gevo (Englewood, CO) says it has entered into a definitive, commercial off-take agreement with Sasol Chemical Industries Limited. The deal is expected to include the majority of Gevo’s 2012 and 2013 production capacity. Sasol will use the isobutanol to produce solvents and specialty chemicals.
Gevo says it aims to produce about 110 million gals/year of isobutanol by 2013, and 350 million gals/year by 2015. Together with Redfield Energy (Redfield, SD), the company is retrofitting a Redfield 50-million gals/year ethanol plant into a 38-million gals/year isobutanol plant. It is expected to coming online in the fourth quarter of 2012. Gevo plans to bring an 18 million gals/year isobutanol unit by next summer after retrofits are complete at an ethanol plant it acquired at Luverne, MI. It also has an ethanol-to-isobutanol retrofit jv with an undisclosed partner.
Gevo raised $95.7 million in a February initial public offering, but soon after was hit with a patent infringement suit by DuPont’s Butamax Advanced Biofuel (Wilmington, DE) joint venture with BP. Lanxess owns a 9.1% stake in Gevo.
Butamax sues Gevo over patent infringment claim
In Delaware, Butamax Advanced Biofuels filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Gevo relating to use of Butamax’s biobutanol technology, which was covered by a foundational patent granted by the USPTO last month. The patent encompasses biocatalysts developed to produce isobutanol.
A number of patent applications by Butamax have been successfully accepted into the United States Patent and Trademark Office Green Technology Pilot Program for accelerated review. Butamax was formed as a BP/DuPont joint venture to develop and commercialize biobutanol as a next generation renewable biofuel for the transport market, and is poised for commercial launch from 2012/2013.
Same article, different source:
Butamax Advanced Biofuels(Butamax) is a Delaware-based joint venture between BP and DuPont formed in 2009 to develop biobutanol. Biobutanol is an advanced biofuel which has some important advantages over ethanol, including an energy content closer to that of gasoline and the capacity to create higher blend concentrations with gasoline.
Butamax ownsU.S. Patent No. 7,851,188, entitled “Fermentive production of four carbon alcohols” (’188 Patent). The ’188 Patent is directed to Butamax’s biobutanol production technology and recombinant microbial host cells that produce the biofuel.
Last month Butamax suedGevo, an Englewood, Colorado, advanced biofuels company, for infringement of the ’188 Patent.
The complaint (Butamax_Complaint), filed in federal court in Delaware, alleges that Gevo’s isobutanol production pathway infringes the ’188 Patent:
According to the complaint, Gevo has produced isobutanol using such microbial host cells in a retrofitted ethanol production facility and is converting another ethanol facility for isobutanol production.
Butamax is seeking an injunction and monetary damages.As far as I know, this is the first instance of biofuel patent litigation involving a major oil company. With the oil majors increasingly involved in biofuels startups via research funding, buyouts, and JVs like Butamax, it won’t be the last
A bio-based succinic acid joint venture between ASF and CSM
BASF SE and Purac, a subsidiary of CSM nv, recently announced the start of negotiations to form a joint venture for the production of bio-based succinic acid. The companies have been conducting research under a joint development agreement on bio-based succinic acid since 2009. The balancing strengths in fermentation and downstream processing led to the development of a sustainable and highly efficient manufacturing process based on a proprietary microorganism. The demand for succinic acid is expected to grow strongly in the near future. Main drivers are expected to be bioplastics, chemical intermediates, solvents, polyurethanes and plasticizers.
The newly developed process combines high efficiency with the use of renewable substrates and the fixation of the greenhouse gas CO2 during the production.This results in a positive eco-footprint and makes bio-based succinic acid an economically and ecologically attractive alternative to petrochemical substitutes. The employed microorganism Basfia succinici producens is a natural producer of succinic acid and can process a wide variety of C3, C5 and C6 renewable feedstocks, including biomass sources.
“We aim to be the first commercial producer in the market with a 25,000 tons capacity fermentation production plant at the Purac site near Barcelona, Spain, with the intention to start up by 2013 at the latest,” said Gerard Hoetmer, CEO of CSM. “In addition, we are already planning a world-scale plant with a capacity of 50,000 tons to account for the expected demand growth. This partnership has enormous potential as it leverages the combined competencies of two leading companies in their fields.”
During the existing cooperation critical steps of the jointly developed production process have been validated in several successful production campaigns. The resulting volumes were used to evaluate the market. “The goal is to globally provide a high product quality and offer security of supply to the customers,” Fabrizio Rampinelli, MD of Purac, added. “Through this bio-based succinic acid collaboration we aim to add another important new growth-pillar to our bio-based polymers and green chemical business.”
Kraton-Formosa joint venture to produce HSBC polymer grades
Kraton Performance Polymers (Kraton) Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC) has inked an agreement for a 50:50 joint venture to construct and operate a 30 kiloton hydrogenated styrenic block copolymer HSBC) plant, to be located in Mailiao, Taiwan. The plant will be operated by the joint venture and Kraton will undertake the global marketing of all products manufactured at the facility. This is subject to the completion of the necessary definitive agreements. The agreement establishes a framework between Kraton and FPCC governing all commercial, operational, technical and management aspects of the planned joint venture company. The paper work will be finalized by end of 2011 and the plant operations will in the H2-2013. The cost of the plant is currently expected to range from US$165-200 mln.
“In response to growth in global demand for our differentiated grades of HSBCs, we have been evaluating alternatives for additional capacity that would employ Kraton’s latest state-of-the-art technology for producing HSBCs. This announcement is the result of a comprehensive one-year site selection process involving significant Kraton resources, during which we considered several possible investment alternatives,” said Kevin M. Fogarty, Kraton’s President and CEO. “FPCC’ssignificant project execution expertise and operational resources will help ensure timely completion of the construction phase of the project. We view this joint venture project as the first step in a long-term relationship with FPCC, which may provide for future capacity expansions. Moreover, as an integral part of this strategic growth investment at Mailiao, FPCC’s petrochemical complex will provide the joint venture with on-site, competitive feedstock inputs, including butadiene, as well as site services and utilities,” Fogarty added. “When completed, this investment will provide significant, additional supply capability, and provide a platform to launch a series of new innovative polymers, to serve the impressive growth plans of our Asian and global customers.”
“FPCC is pleased to form this partnership with Kraton, the global leader in the manufacture of hydrogenated styrenic block co-polymers, which represent a high value segment of a growing specialty polymer of the Asia Pacific markets,” said Wilfred Wang, Chairman of FPC. “This joint venture framework is consistent with FPCC’s strategy of expanding our portfolio into high value downstream businesses. With FPCC’s manufacturing and operations at our Mailiao site providing an excellent infrastructure, feedstocks,utilities and essential services, we have envisaged the success of this win-win deal for both parties.”
Ban on plastics bags in Australia’s Northern Territory from September 1, 2011
Akin to the approach adopted by South Australia, the Northern Territory legislation will prohibit the supply by retailers of plastic bags with handles that are made of polyethylene polymer less than 35 microns thick. Retailers should check with their supplier if they are unsure about the composition or thickness of the bags they are supplying. Legislation was passed by the NT Legislative Assembly in February 2011. Phase-out period commenced on May 1, 2011, and the ban will commence on September 1, 2011. In the Territory, like South Australia, the ban will not extend to:
“Reusable ‘Green bags’ (heavy polypropylene plastic bags designed to be reused over 100 times).
“Recycled bags you bring along yourself.
“Heavier retail (or boutique) bags, typically used by clothing and department stores.
“Biodegradable bags that state they meet the Australian Standard AS 4736-2006.
“Barrier bags, the type dispensed from a roll, typically for items such as loose fruit and vegetables.
Charge on plastic carry bags impact retail usage in India
The Ministry of Environment and Forests’ Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, notification dated February 4 states that no carry bags shall be made available free of cost by retailers to customers. As a result retailers have started charging for plastics carry bags. The charge varies from Re 1 to Rs 7 per bag. This has resulted in an initial drop of 30% in plastics bag consumption by retailers, since the first week of July, because of the introduction of the pricing policy.
Petrobras’ plan to invest US$11 bln in Mexico till 2015
Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) plans to invest US$11 bln in oil exploration, production and refining projects in Mexico uptil 2015. Most of the investment will go into petrochemical plants and refineries in Mexico’s Gulf states. Petrobras plans to invest in Mexico’s Etileno XXI project in Coatzacoalcos comprising ethanol processing plant for with capacity to produce 1 mln tons of ethylene and its derivatives. Output from the project will meet a large chunk of demand that is currently satisfied by imports from the US.
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