G2X Energy (Houston) and Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd. (MHTL) announced on Thursday that MHTL intends to partner with G2X Energy to construct a previously announced, world-scale methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) production facility at Lake Charles, LA. G2X Energy is developing the project, the Big Lake Fuels plant. It will produce 1.4 million m.t./year of commercial-grade methanol and will have the necessary facilities to convert methanol to automotive gasoline in the future.
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2:59 PM MDT | March 24, 2014 | Clay Boswell
The oil spill that has closed Galveston Bay and stopped traffic in and out of the ports of Houston, Texas City, and Galveston is unlikely to have a serious impact on chemical production or shipping, say analysts at IHS. They expect the channel to re-open today, at least partially. In the event of an extended closure, however, aromatics and methanol derivatives could be affected.
The spill occurred at about noon on 22 March, when a barge carrying 900,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil from Texas City to Bolivar collided with a cargo ship. A single compartment of the barge was breached, releasing 168,000 gallons of oil into the harbor.
Brief closures of the bay are not unusual. Between January and March 22, it was closed over a dozen times because of fog.
Data from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) suggest that refiners in the region have ample crude oil in storage, so that supply is not currently an issue, says Aaron Brady, senior director at IHS CERA. “Gasoline inventories are high, but distillate inventories are low, so product storage levels are not a limiting factor at the moment for refinery run rates,” he adds. “Gulf refineries are exporting a lot of product, some of which comes through Galveston Bay. If access to the Channel remains limited they may eventually have to run at lower rates.”
Two refineries at Texas City and several associated chemical plants could be affected owing to their close proximity to the cleanup effort, notes Chris McCloskey, director/aromatics, IHS Chemical. “After several days of restricted traffic south of the Texas City dike, the production of 800,000 m.t./year (2,200 m.t./day) of benzene and 1.1 million m.t./year (3,000 m.t./day) of xylenes may be impacted.”
Acetic acid and formaldehyde producers could have trouble obtaining feedstock if the channel remains closed. “A lot of methanol is supplied via water to the seven area plants that are producing acetic acid and formaldehyde,” says Marc Laughlin, director/methanol and acetone, IHS Chemical. “In a case of extended closure of Galveston Bay, that is not expected at this time, production and shipment of 1.2 million m.t./year (3,300 m.t/day) of acetic acid and 800,000 m.t./year (2,200 m.t./day) of formaldehyde could be impacted.”
There should be little effect on the shipment of steam cracker co-products, since the majority of crackers in the area run on ethane and consequently produce a low amount of heavier co-products. IHS also expects little or no impact on chlor-alkali shipments.
About 27 response vessels were working to skim and recover oil Monday morning, 24 March, and more than 69,000 feet of containment boom had been deployed, according to the US Coast Guard. As of 2 p.m. local time, the Coast Guard was conducting two overflights to assess the situation, according to GAC Hot Port News.
“We’re waiting for the results of an aerial assessment to determine whether it’s possible to partially reopen the ship channel today,” a US Coast Guard spokesperson told IHS Maritime. “Opening the channel is a priority.” Thirty-eight ships were queuing to enter the port of Houston Monday morning, and another 43 to exit. Five were waiting to enter the ports of Texas City and Galveston, and 12 to leave.
Active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), intermediates and formulations manufacturer SMS Pharmaceuticals (Hyderabad, India) informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (Mumbai) that its board of directors has decided to sell its plant at Visakhapatnam, India, to Mylan Laboratories (Hyderabad), a subsidiary of Mylan (Canonsburg, PA), for 1.73 billion Indian rupees ($33 million). The plant manufactures APIs and formulations for oncology drugs.
BASF says it has opened its first applications technology center for polyurethane (PU) systems in Russia. The center is at Vsevolozhsk, near Saint Petersburg. The site will be a part of the BASF joint venture Elastokam with OAO Nizhnekamskneftechim…
The major change that has taken place in the coatings industry during the last twenty years has been the adoption of new coating technologies. Until the early 1970s, most of the coatings were conventional low-solids, solvent-based formulations; waterborne (latex) paints, used in architectural applications, accounted for 30–35% of the total. In the late 1970s, however, impending government regulations on air pollution control focusing on industrial coating operations stimulated the development of low-solvent and solventless coatings that could reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Energy conservation and rising solvent costs were also contributing factors. These new coating technologies include waterborne (thermosetting emulsion, colloidal dispersion, water-soluble) coatings, high-solids coatings, two-component systems, powder coatings and radiation-curable coatings.
The following pie chart shows world production of paints and coatings:
The paints and coatings industry in the United States, Western Europe and Japan is mature and generally correlates with the health of the economy, especially housing and construction and transportation. Overall demand from 2011 to 2016 will increase at average annual rates of 1–2% in the United States and 1.5–2.5% in Western Europe. In Japan, however, consumption of paints and coatings will experience relatively slow growth during this period (0.3%) as a result of no growth in major markets such as automotive OEM, machinery and appliances.
In the emergent countries of the world, coatings are growing at a much faster rate. The best prospects for growth are in Asia Pacific (8–10% growth per year in the near future), Eastern Europe (6%) and Latin America (6%). Growth of coatings in China is expected to continue at 8–10% per year, and in India and Indonesia at 5–10%. Growth in value terms will be even higher as a result of the production of relatively higher-valued coatings. Most of the major multinational paint producers, including PPG, Akzo Nobel, Kansai Paint, Nippon Paint, BASF, DuPont, Chugoku Marine Paint, Valspar, Sherwin-Williams and Hempel, have production in China. The multinational producers should gain even more presence in the developing world as living standards increase and per capita consumption of coatings rises.
Through the next five years, air pollution regulations will continue to be a driving force behind the adoption of new coating technologies. Despite the relatively slow growth in demand anticipated for coatings overall, waterborne and high-solids coatings, powders, UV curables and two-component systems appear to have good growth prospects.
By Malini Hariharan
One more US cracker and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project has been confirmed. After months of speculation Formosa Plastics has announced that plans to build a 800,000 tonnes/year ethane cracker, a 600,000 tonnes/year PDH plant and a 300,000 tonnes/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant at Point Comfort, Texas. The $1.7bn investment is due to be completed in 2016.
Ethylene from the cracker will feed the LDPE unit and other existing downstream plants at the site. The company did not identify plans for the propylene from the PDH unit but said the additional propylene will provide ‘operational flexibility’
Formosa joins Chevron Phillips Chemical, Shell Chemicals and Dow Chemicals with plans for new crackers in the US during 2016-17.
South Africa-based Sasol is undergoing a feasibility study, due in the second half of 2013, for a $3.5bn-$4.5bn cracker of 1.0-1.4m tonnes/year at Lake Charles, Louisiana. Sasol already has a 470,000 tonne/year cracker at the site.
Dow Chemicals also plans to restart its 390,000 tonne/year cracker in St. Charles, Louisiana, by the end of 2012.
The shale gas fueled ethane boom has also prompted companies to plan expansions or debottlenecks at existing sites, including Westlake Chemical, LyondellBasell and INEOS. Other companies who have said they are evaluating new crackers include Saudi Arabia’s SABIC, Brazil’s Braskem, as well as US-based start-up Aither Chemicals.
The expansions and new projects add up to an estimated 29% increase in US ethylene capacity by 2017. The extra ethylene will also trigger a wave of capacity addition downstream. Given the capacity additions planned elsewhere in the world, including China, it is perhaps time for some rational thinking in the US.
By Indian Chemical News
Reliance Industries Ltd formally announced a $450-million joint venture with Russian petrochemical company Sibur, for setting up a one-lakh tonne butyl rubber plant at Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery. The plant is expected to be commissioned in mid-2014. While Reliance will hold a 74.9 per cent stake in the venture, the rest would be held by Sibur. The plant is expected to be commissioned by the second half of 2014 (calendar). The joint venture has been named as Reliance Sibur Elastomers Pvt Ltd. The JV will be the first manufacturer of butyl rubber in India and the fourth largest supplier of butyl rubber in the world. The JV will cater to the demand for synthetic rubber from the Indian automotive industry of over 75,000 tonnes per year, which is currently satisfied by imports. Investment in the JV is in line with Reliance’s vision of emerging as a significant player in the global synthetic rubber market.
Reliance and SIBUR also signed a technology licence agreement facilitating use by the JV of SIBUR’s proprietary butyl rubber production technology at the new production facility. SIBUR will develop basic engineering design for the facility and also train the JV’s personnel at SIBUR’s production site in Togliatti, Russia.
In December 2010, during the state visit of the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, the initial agreement for the joint venture was made by RIL. Butyl rubber is a variety of synthetic rubber with many industrial applications ranging from inner tubes for tyres to adhesives and sealants. Sibur has proprietary technology for making the rubber, which would be made available to the joint venture.
, addressing the media said that the venture will cater to the demand for synthetic rubber from the Indian tyre industry of over 75,000 tonnes a year,
“Today, the whole demand is being met only by imports with prices ranging from $4,000 to $7,000 a tonne,” Nikhil Meswani, Executive Director of RIL, said. According to him, the joint venture will have a turnover of about Rs 2,500 crore after a full year of production. RIL will have to pay a ‘certain’ royalty to Sibur for accessing the proprietary technology for rubber making, he said.