Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium) is announcing plans to completely phase out the use of thermal coal at its soda ash plant in Rheinberg, Germany. After commissioning a first biomass boiler, which will go into operation in May 2021, Solvay is…
Nouryon (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) has signed an agreement with Renewcell to provide specialty chemicals and engineering solutions for its new textile recycling plant in Sundsvall, Sweden. The facility will recycle textile waste, including items such as worn-out jeans and production…
Total Cray Valley, part of the Polymers division of Total SE (Paris), and Gevo, Inc. (Englewood, Colo.) announced the successful completion of phase 1 of their Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to upgrade fusel oils (a mixture liquids produced during alcoholic…
Neste Corp. (Espoo, Finland) announced that it will modify its existing renewables production capacity in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to enable production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Currently, the refinery produces mainly Neste MY Renewable Diesel. The modifications to the refinery,…
As a part of its first-quarter 2021 financial results, Phillips 66 (Houston) provided an update on its conversion project at the San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, California, to meet the growing demand for renewable fuels. In April, the company completed…
After a rough past year, petroleum refineries are seeking profit opportunities through the use of renewable feedstocks, such as vegetable oils and waste fats, as well as with new alkylation technologies and by increasing “crude-to-chemicals” (C2C) approaches The past 18…
Polylactic acid (PLA, polylactide; Figure 1) is a thermoplastic aliphatic polyester that is derived from a number of renewable starting materials, such as starch and sugarcane, via bacterial fermentation. PLA is semicrystalline or amorphous, rigid, resilient and an ultraviolet-light-resistant material,…
Kia Motors and SK Innovation (both Seoul, South Korea) announced that they had secured the possibility of building an industrial ecosystem that enables eco-friendly handling of EV batteries and technological basis thereof by re-collecting metals such as lithium from used…
Aker Solutions ASA (Lysaker, Norway) has signed a contract with Nordic Blue Crude (NBC) for front-end engineering and design (FEED) of a new e-Fuel facility at Herøya in Porsgrunn, Norway. The e-Fuel plant is planned to produce CO2-neutral fuel by…
Repsol S.A. (Madrid, Spain) announced that it will join the Ecoplanta project, together with Enerkem (Montréal, Québec, Canada) and Grupo Agbar (Barcelona, Spain), to build a waste-to-chemicals plant in Tarragona, Spain. Under the joint venture Ecoplanta Molecular Recycling Solutions, the…