Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News 05-06-2020 - Arhive
Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
Crude Oil Prices Trend
-Danone’s Volvic Brand is Now Carbon Neutral
Volvic, a Danone brand, has announced that it is now carbon neutral and is becoming a B Corp, the biggest natural mineral water brand in Europe to be certified as such. As part of its long-term sustainability efforts, Volvic is announcing today several sustainability commitments:
Being B Corp Certified: Volvic is the biggest natural spring water brand with a B Corp Certification in Europe. Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
-Oil’s comeback encourages US shale producers
As OPEC+ producers head toward a consensus on extending output curbs, oil’s rally is prompting some U.S. producers to open their taps once again.
Futures settled at their highest since March 6 on Tuesday, the day the Saudi-Russian alliance broke down just as a global pandemic dimmed the outlook for demand. Oil’s rebound over the past month brings back concerns that Russia could again hesitate to extend output cuts, with rival shale producers signaling they are ready to re-open wells that were shut during the market’s collapse. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
Further evidence of that threat emerged this week, when U.S. driller Parsley Energy Inc. said it’s turning oil wells back on just weeks after shutting them off, illustrating the shale industry’s agility in responding to rising crude prices.
-BBIA joins UK coalition to ban oxodegradable plastics
Bio-Based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA) is supporting a UK trade associations coalition’s call for a ban on oxodegradables. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
Other members of the coalition include the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), the Environmental Services Association (ESA), the Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA), the REA, Greenpeace, A Plastic Planet and Recoup.
The coalition has sent a letter to Environment Secretary George Eustice demanding a “total ban” on conventional non-biodegradable plastics in the country.
These plastic materials, which have additives, speed-up the breakdown of plastics into microplastics.
-Covestro launches its first partially bio-based polycarbonate film
Expands portfolio of bio-based products
The latest addition to Covestro’s sustainable products portfolio is a polycarbonate film of which, the company says, more than 50 percent of its carbon content is sourced from starch, derived from widely available plant feedstock.
The carbon footprint of the new film material is considerably smaller than that of conventional, petroleum-based polycarbonate. Moreover, unlike conventional polycarbonates, it contains no BPA. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
Called Makrofol EC, it is the first partially bio-based film in the company’s product portfolio. The film offers improved chemical and weather resistance as well as increased abrasion resistance.
-Interior to become the new exterior according to Asahi Kasei Europe survey
In October 2019, Asahi Kasei Europe conducted a representative survey together with Cologne-based market research institute SKOPOS, interviewing a total of 1,200 car users in Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom regarding their preferences relative to mobility and especially to the future automotive interior.
A key result of the survey shows when buying the next car, 18.3% of all respondents in the four main European automotive markets will not buy the same brand as the current car and 34,9% are still undecided. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
-MARCHANTE launches new MASIM LS Series for biax stretching solution
MARCHANTE is launching a new MASIM LS Series for technical film simultaneous orientation to improve film mechanical and optical properties while providing a flexible, user-friendly and custom-made solution. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
MARCHANTE has challenged the existing mechanical system to achieve extreme stretching ratios, higher processing temperatures and higher film relaxing rates.
This is in order to support the communications and electronics, electrical automotive or specialty packaging industries that are rapidly developing new materials and applications.
-DSM introduces new value offering
Royal DSM has announced the launch of a new product portfolio for ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), Trosar.
Trosar will bring the unique benefits of UHMWPE within reach of more manufacturers, including those from the hard and soft ballistic UD, rope, netting, and aquaculture industries. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
DSM says the increasingly wide range of manufacturers are now looking to leverage the unique chemical and mechanical properties of materials for a broader range of applications and Trosar aims to address this market need and make the use of UHMWPE more accessible than ever.
Dow Polyurethanes (PU), a business division of Dow (NYSE: Dow), has announced a breakthrough in its RENUVA Mattress Recycling Program with a plan to install a pioneering industrial scale production facility at Orrion Chemicals Orgaform in Semoy, France.
The RENUVA Mattress Recycling Program will take discarded mattress foam and turn it back into raw material (polyol) through chemical recycling, the process of converting waste into feedstock. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
The new raw material can then be used in flexible or rigid foam products to go into applications such as building insulation boards and even back into new mattresses.
-Smart Textile Fibers to Measure Wearer’s Health
At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) researchers have developed special textile threads that can be used to detect slight variations in how a fabric is stretched, the pressures that are applied to it, and even the torque that twists it. The capability may end up being used in clothing and even bed sheets to continuously monitor people’s breathing and heart rates, body movement, and other parameters that may be useful in medicine and healthcare. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
“Imagine clothing or hospital bed sheets capable of monitoring your breathing and other vital movements, or AI-powered textiles that allow robots to interact more safely and intuitively with humans” said Andreas Leber, one of the leads of a study appearing in Nature Electronics. “The soft transmission lines that we’ve developed open the door to all of this.”
The transmission lines that Leber refers to are made of optical fibers, liquid metals, and elastomers, which have been incorporated together in a sophisticated arrangement.
-Huge increases in Japan’s textile and apparel demand in April
The latest data shows that Japan imported 243,000 tons of textile and apparel in Apr, up by 8.8% year-on-year and 12.3% month-on-month; the volume from China was 140,000 tons, up by 21.5% year-on-year and 32.9% month-on-month. During Jan to Apr, Japan’s cumulative textile and apparel imports reached 848,000 tons, down by 3.4% year-on-year, and that from China was 426,000 tons, down by 4.1% year-on-year.
In terms of value, the import value of Japan‘s textile and apparel in Apr showed a surge, up by 29.3% month-on-month; while that from China rose by 72.9% month-on-month. It can be seen that Japan’s textile and apparel import demand in April was strong, and that from China has grown rapidly. Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News
Petrochemicals Enzymes Automotive News