PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling 16-03-202 - Arhive

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PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

-Saudi Aramco to develop major refinery and petrochemical complex in China

Saudi Aramco said on Thursday its JV in China will develop a major integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in the northeast of the country, reported Reuters.

The project, expected to be operational in 2024, combines a 300,000 bpd capacity refinery and ethylene-based steam cracker, with Aramco set to supply up to 210,000 bpd of crude oil feedstock.

Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Company is a JV between Aramco, North Huajin Chemical Industries Group and Panjin Xincheng Industrial Group.

As MRC informed before, in June 2020, Aramco finalized its USD69 billion acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the Middle East’s biggest petrochemical maker. SABIC reported more than a fivefold year-on-year increase in its Q3 net profit to USD1.49 billion thanks to higher average sales prices.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.7

PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate - PET-recycling

-Sabic collaborates with Kraton for certified renewable butadiene to produce certified renewable styrenic block copolymers

  • The new collaboration with Kraton will deliver certified renewable butadiene from SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE™ portfolio for use in Kraton’s certified renewable styrenic block copolymers (SBC)
  • Each kilogram of SABIC’s bio-based butadiene reduces CO2 emissions by an average of 4 kilograms compared to fossil-based virgin alternatives

SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry has announced a new collaboration with Kraton, a leading global sustainable producer of specialty polymers and high-value biobased products derived from pine wood pulping co-products, to deliver certified renewable butadiene from its TRUCIRCLE™ portfolio for use in Kraton’s certified renewable styrenic block copolymers (SBC). This effort forms part of SABIC’s 2025 strategy, which includes a Sustainability Development Goal roadmap spanning the organization’s entire value chain and addressing 10 goals to help drive meaningful sustainable change. PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

SABIC’s certified renewable butadiene is derived from animal-free and palm oil-free ‘second generation’ renewable feedstock, such as tall oil, a by-product from the wood pulping process in the paper industry. This feedstock is not in direct competition with human food and animal feed production sources. According to the cradle-to-gate lifecycle analysis, from sourcing the raw feedstock to producing the polymers, each kilogram of the company’s bio-based butadiene reduces CO2 emissions by an average of 4 kilograms compared to fossil-based virgin alternatives. Additionally, each ton of the butadiene also cuts fossil depletion by up to 80 per cent.

Mohammed Al-Zahrani, Vice President, Chemical at SABIC adds, “Sustainability in SABIC is embedded across our organization and goes hand in hand with our commitment to helping our customers and their customers meet their own sustainability targets. Developing more sustainable solutions requires partnerships across the value chain. Our collaboration with Kraton for renewable butadiene as feedstock for Kraton’s polymers is another example of working together towards our common goals and confirms the wide interest from the chemicals industry in developing sustainable solutions for the future.

After SABIC’s earlier successes in developing certified renewable and circular ethylene, propylene, and benzene, we are delighted to add certified renewable butadiene to our TRUCIRCLE portfolio.” PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

SABIC’s certified renewable butadiene will be used in Kraton’s newly launched ISCC PLUS certified renewable CirKular+™ ReNew Series to expand Kraton’s existing suite of solutions designed to advance the circular economy. With up to 70% certified renewable content, the ReNew Series offers customers the opportunity to use the mass balance approach and adopt ISCC PLUS certification to produce renewable products. Kraton successfully produced CirKular+ ReNew Series Hydrogenated Styrenic Block Copolymers (HSBC) at the Berre plant earlier this year using SABIC’s renewable butadiene.

“Kraton’s ambition is to enable the bioeconomy and play a role in advancing the circular economy. Value chain collaboration is instrumental in achieving progress towards a circular economy.

Kraton is excited to collaborate with SABIC in using certified renewable butadiene enables us to develop and produce styrenic block copolymers with up to 70% of certified renewable raw material content,” said Holger Jung, Kraton Senior Vice President, and Polymer Segment President. PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

“This is an exciting innovation for our customers as it can help reduce the carbon footprint of fossil-based HSBC made in our Berre plant by up to 65 percent”.

PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate - PET-recycling

-Indorama working to increase PET recycling by 2025

PET giant Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. is well on its way to meet the company’s 2025 goal of dramatically increasing the use of recycled plastics.

It was three years ago that Indorama revealed plans to push recycled PET production to 750,000 tons by 2025 and spend $1.5 billion in the process.

Now, about halfway between when the announcement was made the upcoming 2025 deadline, Indorama had about 334,000 tons of recycled capacity as of 2021, said Srinivasan Prabhushankar, CEO of recycling at Indorama, during the recent Packaging Conference in Austin. PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

The company also already has committed to an additional 336,000 tons of reprocessing capacity between now and 2025, bringing the firm to within 80,000 tons of its 750,000-ton plan, he said. The company’s recycling capacity was 208,000 tons when Indorama made the pledge in 2019. Since then, the Bangkok, Thailand-based company has added nine new recycling assets during the pandemic to push the total higher, he said. That includes the purchase of the former Carbonlite PET recycling facility in Dallas in 2021.

Indorama is a powerhouse in the PET business as Prabhushankar said one in every five PET bottles used around the world is made from Indorama resin. From that position, the company sees the push from consumers, governments and brands to dramatically increase PET recycling.

PET is the most widely recycled plastic in the United States, but still less than 30 percent of the material finds reuse. So even with the company’s increases in recycled PET, Prabhushankar said there is more work to be done within the company and within the entire industry.

“There are three things that are absolutely necessary to achieve this. One is infrastructure, second is government regulations and the third is human behavior,” Prabhushankar said.  PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

“The social, political and the commercial pressures are all driving sustainability,” he said. “Consumers are demanding a sustainable package. And governments are taking actions” to improve collection rates. “And, finally, the commercial pull from our customers, the brand owners and the converters, they all have pledged very high recycled content for both sustainability and for commercial advantage.”

Education is a key aspect of increasing PET recycling numbers, Prabhushankar said, and Indorama has created a program in Thailand to drive that point home. The effort has proven to be successful with an economic benefit of 5.5 times the investment made in the program, he said. Based on those numbers, Indorama is looking to expand the program elsewhere.

While the company works on expanding its own recycling capacity, securing supply is an important aspect of keeping those facilities operating. Part of the company’s approach is partnering with waste management companies to expand their collection areas to drive more material to the recycler.

PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate - PET-recycling

-For a cleaner India: Food safety authority tightens proposals for recycled plastic packaging after pushback

FSSAI has issued new, stricter standards to govern the use of recycled plastic for food packaging after facing pushback from a group of concerned scientific experts.©Getty Images PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

The Food Safety and Standards Authority India (FSSAI) has issued new, stricter standards to govern the use of recycled plastic for food packaging after facing pushback from a group of concerned scientific experts.

Previously all use of recycled plastics to package, store, carry or dispense any food items was prohibited in India under its Plastic Waste Management Rules. But in September last year, FSSAI released draft plastic waste management guidelines proposing to allow the use of recycled plastic for ready-to-eat or drink products.

According to FSSAI CEO Arun Singhal, this revision was designed as a positive move towards more efficient management of the country’s massive plastic waste, reported by a 2021 Minderoo Foundation report to stand at some 5.58 million tonnes annually.

“We are in the process of setting standards for recycled plastics, [and] as soon as that is done I think all of us can move towards reducing the plastic load of food industry in the country,” he said.

However, it wasn’t long before scientific experts burst FSSAI’s bubble of optimism, with a group of multi-industry experts from the Centre for Science and Environment, the Recycle India Foundation, the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) and even the Delhi High Court participating in a high-level forum voicing concerns regarding the new changes held by legal platform LawWiser.

“[Amongst our main concerns] include the possibility that the majority of the recycling industry in India uses recycling machines of inferior quality which could possible make plastic more toxic, [as this would be dangerous to human health if brought into contact with food or drink,” said the experts.

“Specific standards for plastic recycling have also not yet been set in India, so it will be difficu;t to understand the recycled plastic’s composition, and continuous recycling [could backfire] if quality degrades too far or more toxins are produced.”

The experts also highlighted that in countries where this is allowed such as the United States, manufacturers hold the responsibility to ensure that the recycled plastic is safe for usage – but in India, it is also not clear where the responsibility for this lies as of yet. PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

In response to these concerns, as of January 2022 FSSAI has issued a new update to the draft amendment, mandating that all recycled plastics used need to adhere to national standards, and included a new five-page Annexure with details on these standards.

PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate - PET-recycling

-ABB to electrify two plants in North America set to produce 60 tons of green hydrogen daily

ABB to deliver electrical systems for two new hydrogen plants of Plug Power Inc. in North America, including the continent’s largest

Plants set to jointly produce 60 tons of green hydrogen daily to replace some 170 tons of fossil fuels in logistics and transportation sector

ABB solutions help make green hydrogen production more affordable, accessible and sustainable PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

ABB has been awarded two major contracts by Plug Power Inc, a leading provider of turnkey solutions for the global green hydrogen economy, to provide the electrical systems for two new hydrogen plants in North America, set to collectively produce 60 tons of green hydrogen per day. Green hydrogen is produced with renewable energy sources and emits zero carbon when used as fuel.

The first plant, Project Gateway, in Genesee County, New York, will be North America’s largest green hydrogen production facility, providing the northeastern US daily with 45 metric tons of green liquid hydrogen, which contains as much energy as 126 tons of gasoline and equates to 14,000 tons of CO2 per year.

ABB will provide the full electrical system encased in an ABB eHouse solution – a prefabricated, walk-in, modular outdoor substation hosting a range of electrical, automation and ancillary equipment that provides the site and process power. ABB’s prefabricated and pre-tested solution reduces both the costs and time needed for installation and commissioning.

ABB will also supply gas and air insulated switchgear, low voltage motor control centers, along with low voltage variable speed drives for auxiliary applications. Medium voltage VSDs will be applied to multiple motors in sync bypass mode. Used as compressor starters, these drives allow smooth process control, and reduce stress to equipment and utility loads by limiting inrush current and power demand during the process start. The plant will use Plug Power’s state-of-the-art proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through an electrochemical process, using clean New York hydropower.

With a similar scope of work, Plug Power’s second plant, Peachtree, in Camden County, Georgia, will produce 15 tons of liquid green hydrogen per day using 100 percent renewable energy, serving customers in the southeastern US.

The hydrogen produced will be used for logistics and transportation sectors, enabling users to replace fossil fuels in on-road applications such as heavy-duty freight vehicles and forklifts. PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

ABB to electrify two plants in North America set to produce 60 tons of green hydrogen daily

-Exclusive Digest Q&A with Avantium’s CEO about World’s 1st FDCA Flagship Plant

The stars were aligning for the world’s 1st FDCA Flagship Plant construction when Avantium’s shareholders granted the requested approvals for all items on the agenda related to it earlier this year with an expected operational date of 2024, enabling the commercial launch of PEF from 2024 onwards. So what’s the status now? What’s the inside take on next steps and plans? PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

In today’s Digest, an exclusive Digest Q&A with Tom van Aken, Avantium’s CEO on commercialization timeline and plans, partners involved, where they see the future of sustainable plastics and packaging going, why FDCA, the main building block of the 100% plant-based, recyclable plastic PEF (polyethylene furanoate) is so important in the commercial launch of PEF, what we can expect from 2024 onwards, and more…and it’s ready for you now at The Digest online.

Backstory

Earlier this year, The Digest reported that Avantium was getting everything in place to build the world’s 1st FDCA Flagship Plant and that shareholders granted the requested approvals for all items on the agenda related to the positive Final Investment Decision on the construction of the Plant.

In February, Avantium published its Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data for its bottles made from PEF (polyethylene furanoate): a plant-based, fully recyclable plastic material. nova-Institut GmbH recently completed the ISOcertified LCA to assess the potential environmental impact of monolayer PEF and multilayer PET/PEF bottles. Compared to the incumbent fossil-based PET bottle designs, significant improvements in carbon footprint of around 35% in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be achieved depending on the chosen application. This is also combined with the biogenic nature of the emissions (from renewable carbon) that a PEF bottle would release at end-of-life, which do not contribute additionally to global warming. Once PEF is commercially available, substantial economic, technological, and environmental optimisations are expected within the value chain, leading to further reduction of its environmental impact. So that’s another reason why commercialization of PEF is so important. PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

Exclusive Digest Q&A with Avantium’s CEO about World’s 1st FDCA Flagship Plant

PEF-Polyethylene-Furanoate – PET-recycling

Green-Hydrogen – Chemical-recycling 15-03-2022