Polymers Petrochemicals Carbon fibre 12-03-2019 - Arhive

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  • China – Polyethylene Terephthalate

PET and its chain are weak.

  • Polyamide6 and its chain continue to be steady.

PET Bottle grade export 1,065/1,110 $/ton – PET Bottle grade domestic market 8,400/8,550 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade SD domestic market 7,900/8,050 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade BR domestic market 7,950/8,050 yuan/ton

PTA Taiwan 855/865 $/ton – PTA domestic market 6,600/6,700 yuan/ton – MEG $ 635/650 $/ton – MEG domestic market 5,150/5,300 yuan/ton – PX Korea 1,095/1,105 $/ton

POY 150D/48F  domestic market 8,800/8,900  yuan/ton – DTY 150D/48F  domestic market 10,500/10,600  yuan/ton – PSF domestic market 8,850/8,950  yuan/ton

Polymers Petrochemicals Carbon fibre

Crude Oil Prices Trend

Polymers Petrochemicals Carbon fibre

Rome, 8 March 2019 – Today, Eni signed an agreement with COREPLA, the National Consortium for the Collection, Recycling and Recovery of Plastic Packaging, to launch research projects to produce hydrogen from non-recyclable plastic packaging waste.

The agreement was signed by Giuseppe Ricci, Eni Chief Refining & Marketing Officer, and Antonello Ciotti, President of COREPLA.

It defines the joint working group that will, over the next six months, assess the launching of research projects to produce hydrogen and high-quality biofuels from plastic waste.

The working group will analyse how the market of non-mechanically recyclable packaging will evolve in the next few years.

They will study the types of waste that can be used to develop a positive, innovative circular economy process and maximise recovery, in line with new EU directives.

Polymers Petrochemicals Carbon fibre

  1. Surface modification of PLA

Surface interaction of PLA with other materials plays an important role in many consumer and biomedical applications.

Special surface chemical functionalities, hydrophilicity, roughness and topography are often necessary and must be controlled.

Synthetic polymers, natural polymers and biomacromolecules have been used to adapt these properties to the PLA substrates by various techniques.

Surface modification methods can be classified as non-permanent (non-covalent attachment of functional groups) or permanent (covalent attachment).

For example, although studies have been made to modify PLA for packaging films, there is a lack of data in the literature regarding friction modification, adhesion and anti-fogging.

State-owned Saudi Aramco’s oil allocations for April are 635,000 bpd below customers’ nominations — requests made by refiners and clients for Saudi crude, the Saudi official said.

The April allocations by Aramco show “a deep cut of 635,000 bpd from customer requests for its crude oil.”

Saudi Arabia plans to cut its crude oil exports in April to below 7 million barrels per day (bpd), while keeping its output  “well below” 10 million bpd, a Saudi official said on Monday, as the kingdom seeks to drain a supply glut and support oil prices.

State-owned Saudi Aramco’s oil allocations for April are 635,000 bpd below customers’ nominations — requests made by refiners and clients for Saudi crude, the Saudi official said.

Borealis has awarded Tecnimont, main contractor of Maire Tecnimont with the engineering, procurement, construction management (EPCM) and commissioning services contract for a new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant, including the requisite utilities and interconnections.

The new facility, located at an existing Borealis production site in Kallo, Belgium, will have a targeted production capacity of 750,000 metric tonnes per year, making it one of the largest and most efficient in the world.With a total contract value of approximately €90m the Kallo PDH project is on a reimbursable basis.

In a new position paper, FKuR Kunststoff GmbH offers its viewpoint on the use of biobased and biodegradable plastics, and their contribution to a circular economy.

As part of the current discussions regarding the ecological sense and consequences of the use of plastics, biobased as well as biodegradable plastics are taking on an as yet unidentified special status.

As a responsible manufacturer and marketer, FKuR confirms both product groups have a great potential to meet the demands of the current EU directives in addressing this issue. The company emphasises the excellent suitability of biobased thermoplastics for conventional material recycling, while it sees biodegradable plastics as an efficient and proven solution for those applications where this property generates added value for the end product.

With the importance of operating a sustainable business in an industry consistently experiencing technological change, it has become vital that companies embrace technology and introduce new systems in order to keep up with competitors. In particular, the manufacturing sector has heavily embraced technology with many companies undergoing a digital transformation.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TrakRap, Martin Leeming, believes that industry 4.0 is prioritised heavily at his company. “It’s massive for us. I suppose you can argue that we’re unfortunate because we’re coming into an already established industry of end of line packaging,” he says. “However, where we’re fortunate is that because we’re coming in late, we’re able to start off digitally. We don’t have any baggage and haven’t got to try and transition from one to the other.”

Professor Henry is conducting the first gene-editing experiments to effectively produce biofuels and bioplastics

Professor Henry is conducting the first gene-editing experiments to effectively produce biofuels and bioplastics11 March 2019

Gene-editing sugarcane for use in renewable energy and bio-plastics could help secure the industry’s future.

The University of Queensland’s Professor Robert Henry said sugarcane’s reinvention as an “energycane” crop could sustain the industry in the face of falling global demand for sugar.

“The industry must think beyond just producing sugar, to also producing electricity, biofuels for transportation and oils to replace traditional plastics,” he said

Professor Henry, Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at UQ, is conducting the first gene-editing experiments to tailor sugarcane production to effectively produce biofuels and bioplastics.

“It’s about reinventing sugarcane as a crop with a wider range of end uses, and sugarcane is ideal for renewables because it is fast-growing with abundant biomass,” he said.

By layering two different mineral forms of titanium oxide on perovskite, scientists in Japan have improved the efficiency of pervoskite-based solar cells by almost 17 percent.

Researchers in Japan have layered different mineral forms of titanium oxide on top of one another to improve perovskite-type solar cell efficiency.

Their findings are published in the journal Nano Letters. While most solar cells are made of silicon, such cells are difficult to manufacture, requiring vacuum chambers and temperatures above 1,000°C.

Research efforts have therefore recently focused on a new type of solar cell based on metal halide perovskites. Perovskite solutions can be inexpensively printed to create more efficient, inexpensive solar cells. Read more from Asian Scientist Magazine at: https://www.asianscientist.com/2019/03/tech/titanium-oxide-anatase-brookite-layer-perovskite-solar-cells/

UK and EU chemicals companiesreiterated on Monday that a no-deal Brexitwould have “disastrous consequences” for theEU-wide supply chains created in the last fourdecades.

Among othersignatories, the statement published on Mondaywas signed by both the EU-wide chemicals tradegroup Cefic and its peer in the UK, the CIA.

The two trade groups said that small- andmedium-size enterprises (SMEs) are alreadyexperiencing cash flow issues due to theuncertainty surrounding Brexit.

“Value chains have become so closelyintertwined that a no-deal Brexit will lead tochaos. Delays at customs and disrupted supplyof all goods, including foods and medicines,will affect communities and incur significantcosts for businesses and governments alike,” the trade groups said.

Chemicals recycling technologyis continuing to mature and could becomemainstream within the next five to 10 years,according to executives from BASF and INEOSStyrolution on Friday.

The process ofbreaking plastic waste down to its constituentmolecular parts to reconstitute it as apetrochemicals feedstock is the “missing link” to close the loop on a functioning circulareconomy, according to Klaus Wittstock, head ofindustry advocacy and environmental policyat Germany’s chemicals major BASF.

Chemicals recycling solutions are at variousstages of development, with some at thelaboratory or pilot plant phase and othersfurther along the cycle.

However, five to 10 years remain before thetechnology is fully mature, said Wittstock,speaking at the IdentiPlast conference inLondon.

Norbert Niessner, director of global researchand development (R&D) at styrenicsspecialist INEOS Styrolution, also set out afive-to-10-year timeline.