[ Petrochemicals ]
[ Petrochemicals ]
Outlook Growth has been slowing in the petrochemicals industry . The outlook is mixed , with the Chinese economy faltering , Europe heading for recession and the USA more buoyant . Higher oil prices and geopolitical instability have not helped . Yet chemicals and petrochemicals are not going anywhere : they are an integral part of our lives , serving both end users in household goods and a wide range of businesses : auto , hydrogen , semiconductors etc . Demand in years to come is expected to grow . Petrochemicals are set to account for over a third of the growth in oil demand to 2030 and nearly half to 2050 ( 1 ). According to the IMARC Group , the market is expected to grow 4.8 % per year between 2024 and 2032 ( 2 ). Some of this growth will come from innovation as the industry shifts towards sustainability and takes measures to make more efficient use of resources . But regulation also drives up costs , and major producers have been complaining about stringent EU regulations . Despite China ’ s slow-down , several new plants have been finished or are being planned or built . BASF has broken ground on two plants in Zhanjiang and the joint Verbund site with Sinopec in Nanjing ; it will build a further plant in Zhanjiang . The HAPCO plant is being built , and sites using LyondellBasell technology are being built in Lianyungang , Dongming , Shaanxi ( coal-to-chemicals complex ) and Inner Mongolia . In East Asia , Aramco and Greene Tweed are building plants in South Korea , while Indian Oil approved its large complex in Paradip and is building an HDPE plant in Panipat with technology from LyondellBasell . The Middle East continues the fast growth of previous years . Sinopec and Aramco are collaborating on YASREF in Yanbu , Aramco and TotalEnergies are building the Amiral complex in Jubail and financing has been arranged for Ras Laffan Petrochemicals , a joint venture of Chevron Phillips Chemical and QatarEnergy . The USA continues to cash in on its shale resources , with several start-ups and ongoing construction . TotalEnergies and Borealis have doubled their PE capacity at Baystar , Texas ; ExxonMobil has started up two new chemical units in Baytown , Texas , and doubled polypropylene production at Baton
Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co . ( Petro Rabigh ) is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical . The company produces the fuels and plastics essential to modern life .
Rouge , Louisiana . Chevron Phillips completed its 1-Hexene unit in Old Ocean , Texas ; Dow started up units in Freeport and an HPPG plant it built with Evonik , and it will build a carbonate solvents facility on the Gulf Coast to support lithium-ion battery production .
Sustainability This word , already used twice in this survey , is on everyone ’ s lips in the process industries as they adapt to the new regulatory climate designed to combat global warming ; and there is scarcely a manufacturer that has not created a page on “ Sustainability ” on its company website . However , it is more than a buzzword : substantial pressure is being exerted by both governments and customers , many of whom are themselves subject to stringent regulatory regimes . All the major petrochemical companies are organising themselves to lower their carbon footprint by adopting the following strategies :
Recycling This can take many forms , ranging from returning the plastic to its original use to the more sophisticated processes of breaking down plastics and transforming them into new products . An example of the investments many large companies are making can be seen in TotalEnergies . The company is building a mechanical recycling unit for plastic waste at its Grandpuits site southeast of Paris . The unit will produce
30,000 tonnes a year of compounds containing up to 50 % recycled plastics . Dow and Procter & Gamble are collaborating to develop technology to convert hard-to-recycle plastic packaging into recycled polyethylene with near-virgin quality and a low greenhouse gas emissions footprint . Sumitomo Chemical plans to recycle waste plastics collected from end-oflife automobiles , following the example set by Europe , where new cars are increasingly incorporating recycled materials . BASF and Sulzer Chemtech are collaborating on developing technologies to convert plastic waste into new products . ExxonMobil is operating a new facility in Baytown to break down hard-to-recycle plastics and transform them into raw materials for new products . At the SATORP refinery in Jubail , a consortium consisting of TotalEnergies , Aramco and SABIC is converting oil derived from plastic waste into polymers . In a new plant in Frankfurt-Höchst , Germany , Arcus Greencycling Technologies pyrolyses plastic waste into a condensate that is used to produce new products .
Bio-based plastics This is an emerging industry , comprising only 1 % of the plastics market . Despite concerns about competition for land use with agriculture , and the challenge of integrating them into waste management systems , there is great growth potential . Achievements so far
16 Stainless Steel World June 2024 www . stainless-steel-world . net