Japan’s Nippon Shokubai plans to start commercial operation at its new 80,000 tonne/year acrylic acid (AA) unit, together with its new 90,000 tonne/year super absorbent polymer (SAP) plant in Cilegon, Indonesia, a company source said on Wednesday.
“Both plants are likely to start commercial production by end-August, after the Ramadan holiday,” the source said referring to the fasting month of Muslims that is likely to start by the end of September based on sighting of the moon.
The company was initially also considering building another new AA/SAP facility in Asia or Europe, considering maximum capacities of 160,000 tonnes/year of AA and 120,000 tonnes/year of SAP.
“There is currently no firm plan for the new capacity expansions after the incident at the Himeji facility,” the source said.
SAP is a raw material used in various applications, including diapers and industrial filters. While glacial acrylic acid (AA) is used in the production of SAP.
SOURCE ICIS News - For internal use only
RELATED STORIES
Nippon Shokubai to shut SE Asia crude AA plant in mid-Jan
Technology developers are bolstering investment to bring bio-based materials such as sustainable succinic acid into production
As interest in bio-based routes to chemicals mounts (see the ICIS/Genomatica survey results on page 27), technology developers continue to step up investment efforts and move towards demonstration or commercial production. Recent months have seen a spate of announcements from developers and their chemical industry partners.
Reverdia, the joint venture between Dutch life sciences and materials sciences company DSM and France's Roquette Freres, a global producer of starch and starch derivatives, has just begun operations at its Cassano Spinola facility in Italy, where it is now producing sustainable succinic acid on a commercial scale.
The plant has the capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes/year of Biosuccinium, as Reverdia has branded its innovative material, which is made using low-pH yeast technology. This has been proven on a 300 tonne/year demonstration facility in Lestrem, France.
Key applications for Biosuccinium , says Reverdia, include polybutylene succinate (PBS), polyester polyols for polyurethanes (PU), coating and composite resins, phthalate-free plasticisers and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) (MT Personal comment : BDO may be converted into Butadiene) .
Says Reverdia's general manager, Will van den Tweel, "The new phase will enable direct and indirect customers to start production of commercial-scale volumes of materials and end products based on bio-succinic acid." Reverdia revealed in October that it has appointed German trader and distributor Helm to provide distribution and market development services for Biosuccinium in Europe.
US-based Solazyme has also been moving towards large-scale production of renewable oils and bioproducts from plant sugars, in both the US and Brazil. Just before the 2012 year end it revealed it had successfully scaled up its renewable oil fermentation process to 500,000 litres at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility in Clinton, Iowa.
Solazyme is initially targeting production of some 20,000 tonnes/year of oil starting in early 2014 at the ADM facility, with expansion to 100,000 tonnes/year planned. Solazyme signed an agreement in November 2012 to use the ADM facility, which was previously used to make polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) for Metabolix, but has been idle since the start of 2012.
The scale achieved in the Clinton facility is comparable to the fermentation capability currently under construction at the Solazyme Bunge Renewable Oils facility in Moema, Brazil. Construction of this 100,000 tonne/year capacity facility was begun in June 2012 and the plant is on schedule to begin operation in the fourth quarter of 2014, says Solazyme. The company is also developing commercial facilities in France.
Solazyme and Bunge Global Innovation, part of Brazil's agribusiness and food company, Bunge, signed a joint venture expansion agreement in November last year, that will see manufacturing of oil increase to 300,000 tonnes/year by 2016, utilising the facility now under construction and other selected Bunge owned and operated processing facilities worldwide. The two partners will also expand the range of oils produced by the joint venture in Brazil, including certain tailored food oils for sale in the country.
Also currently bringing production up to commercial scale is US-based Amyris, which is now in the final stages of commissioning its first purpose-built facility to make farnasene, in Paraiso, Brazil. Operation is expected early this year, with the plant capable of producing 50m litres/year once fully operational.
The company has appointed Charles Kraft as vice president of global manufacturing and process development to "help take our industrial manufacturing capabilities to the next phase." This will focus on continuous operation improvement and process optimisation as the scale-up continues.
Amyris converts plant sugars using fermentation with yeast strains into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules, including farnasene, artemisinic acid and a fragrance ingredient. It is commercialising the farnasene as Biofene and other products under the No Compromise brand for use in cosmetics, flavours and fragrances, polymers, lubricants and consumer products, as well as renewable diesel and jet fuel.
For the latter products, Amyris recently enhanced its strategic partnership with Total, with the French oil major committing $82m (€63m) funding to Biofene fuels over the next three years.
In China, New Zealand's LanzaTech, which uses waste carbon monoxide and dioxide streams to make low-carbon chemicals and fuels, says it has just achieved a major milestone at the Baosteel steel plant just outside Shanghai. The 100,000 gal/year (300 tonnes/year) facility to convert off-gases from the steel mill into ethanol has run successfully, proving the technology at a significantly larger scale than previously used.
LanzaTech describes the current Baosteel facility as "pre-commercial" but says that the Chinese authorities have given the go-ahead for a full-scale plant to be built this year as a result of the successful trials. A joint venture, Shanghai BaosteelLanzaTech New Energy, created in 2011, will commercialise the technology across China, where it has enormous potential, says Baosteel.
In October last year, Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas said it will work with LanzaTech to develop and commercialise technologies that will convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and natural gas into sustainable chemicals, including acetic acid. "Waste CO2 from Petronas operations will be captured by LanzaTech's process to create economic routes to acetic acid," LanzaTech said in a statement.
The joint development agreement builds on the relationship established earlier this year when Petronas Technology Ventures invested in LanzaTech as part of its Series C fund raising round.
PETROCHEMICALS ANDY BRICE LONDON
PARTNERSHIPS PREVAIL IN PUSH FOR BIO-BD
Concerns over supply scarcity and price volatility, combined with the anticipated increase in demand, have fuelled efforts to develop sustainable production of butadiene (BD). Some 10m tonnes/year of BD is currently produced from oil in a market worth over $20bn (€15bn). The past year has seen some significant advances.
Industrial biology firm Global Bioenergies has combined efforts with rubber producer Synthos and discovered of method of converting renewable feedstock into BD. In July 2011, a strategic partnership was formed with the first phase focused on conversion through a direct, gaseous fermentation process. With this now complete and the process proven, the development phase is now underway.
With BD also a key intermediate for Versalis 's elastomers business, the Italian producer announced a joint venture last July together with technology developer Genomatica and renewables firm Novamont to produce polymer-grade BD from biomass. Versalis will hold a majority interest in the collaboration and is aiming to be the first to build commercial plants using the process technology. The technology aspect of the agreement is intended to be made available for future licensing in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Meanwhile, Japan's Ajinomoto and tyre manufacturer Bridgestone are working together to commercialise synthetic rubber for tyres using bio-based isoprene, a raw material produced using fermentation technology from biomass.
Since signing the research agreement in June 2011, Ajinomoto has manufactured bio-based isoprene at laboratory scale using a fermentation process from biomass raw material. Bridgestone has also successfully produced synthetic rubber (polyisoprene) from the bio-based isoprene.
For more news on bio-based chemicals technology and investment from ICIS, go to icis.com/about/news/
development update
firms forge ahead on new routes to sustainable products
Myriant progresses with proprietary bio-acrylic acid process Myriant announced last March that it was developing a proprietary process to produce bio-acrylic acid . It filed for patent protection for the process and planned to start scaling up to supply samples to customers in the second half of 2012. The producer said it believed its bio-acrylic acid would be cost competitive compared with petroleum-based acrylic acid without the need for government subsidies or green premiums. With global propylene supplies becoming constrained amid pricing volatility, demand is rising for acrylic acid from renewable feedstocks, it said.
Biodegradable PBS tech Engineering firm Uhde Inventa-Fischer expanded its portfolio to include polybutylene succinate (PBS) technology last May. The PBS biopolymer - produced from succinic acid and butanediol (BDO) in a continuous polycondensation process - uses the firm's proprietary process. It is offering its customers plants with capacities of at least 40,000 tonnes/year of PBS polymer.
Gevo/Beta joint venture for bio-based isobutanol In July 2012, Gevo signed an agreement with Beta Renewables - a joint venture between Chemtex and TPG -- to develop an integrated process to produce bio-based isobutanol (bio-IBA) from cellulosic, non-food biomass. Combining Beta and Gevo's technologies, production plants are expected to be built depending on the availability of cellulosic feedstocks such as switchgrass, miscanthus, agriculture residues and other biomass. The project should also see commercialisation of the technology, which could enable renewably sourced, competitively priced jet fuel as well as other chemicals and fuels made from IBA.
Catalysts deal for Evonik and BioAmber Evonik Industries' catalysts business joined forces with BioAmber in July 2012 to develop and manufacture catalysts to make BDO (1,4- butanediol), THF (tetrahydrofuran) and GBL (gamma-butyrolactone) from bio-based succinic acid . Used in applications such as polymers, paints, adhesives and solvents, the global market for these products currently made from petrochemicals is $4bn (€3bn).
SOURCE Reed Business Information
Renewed focus on natural rubber, non-oil-based synthetics targets sustainable products by 2050.
In a few decades, the tires on your car might be made completely from renewable materials, with no oil being used.
At least that is what Bridgestone Corp. hopes for. The company is working on the concept of tires made from 100% sustainable materials and is looking to have a commercial version ready for market, by 2050.
Bridgestone is developing biomass alternatives for the crude oil now used to make synthetic rubbers and carbon black reinforcing materials for tires. It is also working to diversify the types of plants grown for production of natural rubber.
Ground up
Last summer, Bridgestone purchased roughly 113.7 hectares (281 acres) of land in the U.S. state of Arizona. It plans to soon use part of that land to grow guayule.
The plant is a perennial shrub native to Mexico that grows well in dry regions. Three years after the seedlings have been planted, the trunks and roots of the shrub can be harvested to extract natural rubber.
The world now relies on the Para rubber tree for natural rubber. This plant grows in the tropics, and roughly 90% of all rubber trees under cultivation are grown in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
"Because of this limited growing region, there is always the risk of a spike in rubber prices due to weather conditions," said Bridgestone research fellow Yoichi Ozawa.
From the standpoint of biodiversity, the practice of large-scale cutting down of rubber trees is also a subject of criticism.
As such, Bridgestone is seeking alternatives for natural rubber, and one plan is to make active use of the guayule shrub. But this still has a number of problems.
One is that the rubber obtained from the plant using conventional solvent-extraction techniques contains an equal amount of resin, so a more advanced removal technique using organic solvents is needed. Also, improved strains of guayule must be developed that are more resistant to weather variations and lend themselves better to mass production.
Meanwhile, Bridgestone has also begun researching ways to extract natural rubber from the Russian dandelion plant, which grows in temperate zones.
Like the guayule shrub, the Russian dandelion grows in a different environment than the rubber tree, so Bridgestone can spread risk by also growing these plants for natural rubber.
However, this path is anything but easy to take. "There is no standard method of cultivation, so we need to prepare even the seeds ourselves," Ozawa said.
Bridgestone will conduct tests with Russian dandelion in 2014 and 2015 to investigate factors like strength and decide after that whether to seriously pursue rubber production with the plant.
Beyond sustainable
Bridgestone is also looking anew at synthetic rubber, which is traditionally made from crude oil but can also be made from biomass.
The company is progressing with the development of a technology using high-performance catalysts to make the raw material butadiene from bioethanol. The goal is to operate a pilot plant starting in 2015.
Bridgestone is also studying ways to use biomass to make the carbon black and rubber compounding agents that are used for the reinforcing fibers and stiffeners that are added to tires.
By combining all of these technologies, the company can achieve its concept of a 100% sustainable materials tire.
But in addition to developing new materials, Bridgestone is also interested in reducing the amounts of materials used in its tires, and making more efficient use of resources.
That is why the company is promoting technologies for "half-weight tires" that use half the amount of materials but are just as strong as regular tires, and why it has become directly involved in the business of tire retreading services.
Tires that are reused by being retreaded consume less than one-third the amount of materials of new tires. Bridgestone spent roughly 130 billion yen ($1.4 billion) in 2007 to acquire the U.S. company Bandag Inc. and has since expanded that company's tire-retreading business to 80 countries.
For Bridgestone, environmental management is about expanding and diversifying the use of renewable resources and applying them to all of its products.
"If we as a company are to contribute to the achievement of a sustainable society, then we ourselves must become a sustainable enterprise," said Chairman Shoshi Arakawa.
Although those goals will consume time and money, they will give back to the company in the form of future revenues and profits.
SOURCE NIKKEI Weekly
Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) plans to shut its acrylic acid (AA) and acrylate esters facility at Mailiao in early March for its annual maintenance, a company source said on Wednesday.
The company will shut its 100,000 tonne/year crude AA unit for two weeks, together with its acrylic esters units, the source said.
The facility will be shut from 9 to 23 March for annual maintenance, the source added.
According to the source, the company is able to produce 80,000 tonnes/year of butyl acrylate, 40,000 tonnes/year of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, and 40,000 tonnes/year of glacial AA at the Mailiao site.
SOURCE ICIS News - For internal use only
Click for more
Le groupe allemand réorganise sa division dédiée à la protection des cultures aux États-Unis, en fusionnant trois activités jusqu'alors distinctes : Pest Control Solutions (PCS), Professional Turf et Ornamentals (T&O) et Professional Vegetation Management and Market Business Development (ProVM). Les deux premières développent des solutions de lutte contre les parasites et des solutions pour les gazons et les plantes ornementales. « Comme les marchés de T&O et PCS sont très proches, cette fusion nous permettra de mieux servir nos clients », explique Jan Buberl, directeur des Produits de spécialités de BASF. La troisième activité propose, quant à elle, des solutions professionnelles pour contrôler la végétation à destination de plusieurs marchés. L'entité formée par ces activités sera désormais nommée BASF Specialty Products Department (SPD). Elle sera mise en place à partir du 31 mars 2013 et sera basée sur le Research Triangle Park, en Caroline du Nord.
SOURCE Chimie & Pharma Hebdo
Proplant has been granted an extension of authorisation for minor use (EAMU) by the Chemicals Regulation Directorate for use in ornamental plant production and forest nurseries.
It is a semi-systemic fungicide with action against Pythium, Phytophthora and downy mildew. It already has on-label approval for use on protected broccoli/calabrese, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, with an EAMU for other edibles expected soon, according to supplier Fargro.
SOURCE Horticulture week
As interest in bio-based routes to chemicals mounts (see the ICIS/Genomatica survey results), technology developers continue to step up investment efforts and move towards demonstration or commercial production. Recent months have seen a spate of announcements from developers and their chemical industry partners.
Reverdia, the joint venture between Dutch life sciences and materials sciences company DSM and France's Roquette Freres, a global producer of starch and starch derivatives, has just begun operations at its Cassano Spinola facility in Italy, where it is now producing sustainable succinic acid on a commercial scale.
Bio-scientist Rex Features
Rex Features
Technology developers are bolstering investment to bring bio-based materials such as sustainable succinic acid into production
The plant has the capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes/year of Biosuccinium, as Reverdia has branded its innovative material, which is made using low-pH yeast technology. This has been proven on a 300 tonne/year demonstration facility in Lestrem, France.
Key applications for Biosuccinium, says Reverdia, include polybutylene succinate (PBS), polyester polyols for polyurethanes (PU), coating and composite resins, phthalate-free plasticisers and 1,4-butanediol (BDO).
Says Reverdia's general manager, Will van den Tweel, "The new phase will enable direct and indirect customers to start production of commercial-scale volumes of materials and end products based on bio-succinic acid." Reverdia revealed in October that it has appointed German trader and distributor Helm to provide distribution and market development services for Biosuccinium in Europe.
US-based Solazyme has also been moving towards large-scale production of renewable oils and bioproducts from plant sugars, in both the US and Brazil. Just before the 2012 year end it revealed it had successfully scaled up its renewable oil fermentation process to 500,000 litres at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility in Clinton, Iowa.
Solazyme is initially targeting production of some 20,000 tonnes/year of oil starting in early 2014 at the ADM facility, with expansion to 100,000 tonnes/year planned. Solazyme signed an agreement in November 2012 to use the ADM facility, which was previously used to make polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) for Metabolix, but has been idle since the start of 2012.
The scale achieved in the Clinton facility is comparable to the fermentation capability currently under construction at the Solazyme Bunge Renewable Oils facility in Moema, Brazil. Construction of this 100,000 tonne/year capacity facility was begun in June 2012 and the plant is on schedule to begin operation in the fourth quarter of 2014, says Solazyme. The company is also developing commercial facilities in France.
Solazyme and Bunge Global Innovation, part of Brazil's agribusiness and food company, Bunge, signed a joint venture expansion agreement in November last year, that will see manufacturing of oil increase to 300,000 tonnes/year by 2016, utilising the facility now under construction and other selected Bunge owned and operated processing facilities worldwide. The two partners will also expand the range of oils produced by the joint venture in Brazil, including certain tailored food oils for sale in the country.
Also currently bringing production up to commercial scale is US-based Amyris, which is now in the final stages of commissioning its first purpose-built facility to make farnasene, in Paraiso, Brazil. Operation is expected early this year, with the plant capable of producing 50m litres/year once fully operational.
The company has appointed Charles Kraft as vice president of global manufacturing and process development to "help take our industrial manufacturing capabilities to the next phase." This will focus on continuous operation improvement and process optimisation as the scale-up continues.
Amyris converts plant sugars using fermentation with yeast strains into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules, including farnasene, artemisinic acid and a fragrance ingredient. It is commercialising the farnasene as Biofene and other products under the No Compromise brand for use in cosmetics, flavours and fragrances, polymers, lubricants and consumer products, as well as renewable diesel and jet fuel.
For the latter products, Amyris recently enhanced its strategic partnership with Total, with the French oil major committing $82m (€63m) funding to Biofene fuels over the next three years.
In China, New Zealand's LanzaTech, which uses waste carbon monoxide and dioxide streams to make low-carbon chemicals and fuels, says it has just achieved a major milestone at the Baosteel steel plant just outside Shanghai. The 100,000 gal/year (300 tonnes/year) facility to convert off-gases from the steel mill into ethanol has run successfully, proving the technology at a significantly larger scale than previously used.
LanzaTech describes the current Baosteel facility as "pre-commercial" but says that the Chinese authorities have given the go-ahead for a full-scale plant to be built this year as a result of the successful trials. A joint venture, Shanghai Baosteel LanzaTech New Energy, created in 2011, will commercialise the technology across China, where it has enormous potential, says Baosteel.
In October last year, Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas said it will work with LanzaTech to develop and commercialise technologies that will convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and natural gas into sustainable chemicals, including acetic acid. "Waste CO2 from Petronas operations will be captured by LanzaTech's process to create economic routes to acetic acid," LanzaTech said in a statement.
The joint development agreement builds on the relationship established earlier this year when Petronas Technology Ventures invested in LanzaTech as part of its Series C fund raising round.
PARTNERSHIPS PREVAIL IN PUSH FOR BIO-BD
Concerns over supply scarcity and price volatility, combined with the anticipated increase in demand, have fuelled efforts to develop sustainable production of butadiene (BD). Some 10m tonnes/year of BD is currently produced from oil in a market worth over $20bn (€15bn). The past year has seen some significant advances.
Industrial biology firm Global Bioenergies has combined efforts with rubber producer Synthos and discovered of method of converting renewable feedstock into BD. In July 2011, a strategic partnership was formed with the first phase focused on conversion through a direct, gaseous fermentation process. With this now complete and the process proven, the development phase is now underway.
With BD also a key intermediate for Versalis's elastomers business, the Italian producer announced a joint venture last July together with technology developer Genomatica and renewables firm Novamont to produce polymer-grade BD from biomass. Versalis will hold a majority interest in the collaboration and is aiming to be the first to build commercial plants using the process technology. The technology aspect of the agreement is intended to be made available for future licensing in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Meanwhile, Japan's Ajinomoto and tyre manufacturer Bridgestone are working together to commercialise synthetic rubber for tyres using bio-based isoprene, a raw material produced using fermentation technology from biomass.
Since signing the research agreement in June 2011, Ajinomoto has manufactured bio-based isoprene at laboratory scale using a fermentation process from biomass raw material. Bridgestone has also successfully produced synthetic rubber (polyisoprene) from the bio-based isoprene.
FIRMS FORGE AHEAD ON NEW ROUTES TO SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
Myriant progresses with proprietary bio-acrylic acid process Myriant announced last March that it was developing a proprietary process to produce bio-acrylic acid. It filed for patent protection for the process and planned to start scaling up to supply samples to customers in the second half of 2012. The producer said it believed its bio-acrylic acid would be cost competitive compared with petroleum-based acrylic acid without the need for government subsidies or green premiums. With global propylene supplies becoming constrained amid pricing volatility, demand is rising for acrylic acid from renewable feedstocks, it said.
Biodegradable PBS tech Engineering firm Uhde Inventa-Fischer expanded its portfolio to include polybutylene succinate (PBS) technology last May. The PBS biopolymer - produced from succinic acid and butanediol (BDO) in a continuous polycondensation process - uses the firm's proprietary process. It is offering its customers plants with capacities of at least 40,000 tonnes/year of PBS polymer.
Gevo/Beta joint venture for bio-based isobutanol In July 2012, Gevo signed an agreement with Beta Renewables - a joint venture between Chemtex and TPG -- to develop an integrated process to produce bio-based isobutanol (bio-IBA) from cellulosic, non-food biomass. Combining Beta and Gevo's technologies, production plants are expected to be built depending on the availability of cellulosic feedstocks such as switchgrass, miscanthus, agriculture residues and other biomass. The project should also see commercialisation of the technology, which could enable renewably sourced, competitively priced jet fuel as well as other chemicals and fuels made from IBA.
Catalysts deal for Evonik and BioAmber Evonik Industries' catalysts business joined forces with BioAmber in July 2012 to develop and manufacture catalysts to make BDO (1,4- butanediol), THF (tetrahydrofuran) and GBL (gamma-butyrolactone) from bio-based succinic acid. Used in applications such as polymers, paints, adhesives and solvents, the global market for these products currently made from petrochemicals is $4bn (€3bn).
SOURCE ICB
RELEASED ON 21/01/13 (DD/MM/YY)
A Pesticide industry must be transformed and upgraded.
1. High output and low net profit
In 2011 China produced 2.65 million tons of pesticides, however, the total sales value (including the sales value of pesticides and other chemicals) accrued by domestic pesticide enterprises was only RMB200 billion (around US$31.7 billion). China had more than 3 000 pesticide plants, and their total sales value of pesticides was only US$10.1 billion in 2011, less than the sales value achieved by a single multinational corporation like Syngenta. The sales profit rate of the domestic pesticide industry is far below that in the developed countries. Profit per ton of product in China lags especially far behind that of advanced multinational corporations.
2. Low technical level
The pesticide technical level includes the quality of pesticide technical, processing technology and automation level of pesticides as well as the technical level of waste treatment (waste gas, wastewater and industrial residue). Especially in R & D capability and discovery level of pesticides, China still lags far behind the developed countries. China's pesticide industry still remains in the stage of combining imitation and innovation, relying mainly on imitation. Pesticides belong to the fine chemical industry, but China’s pesticide makers are not very refined.
3. Development of the pesticide industry has a negative effect on the environment
According to the estimate of the pollutant generation and discharge coefficient in the pesticide industry obtained from the national census of pollution sources organized by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (MEP) and others in 2007, producing one ton of pesticide can discharge around 50 tons of sewage. The pesticide industry has great impact on the environment, and solving the problems of pesticide pollution has become the primary task in transforming and upgrading the industry.
B Pollution control tasks cannot be delayed
The transformation and upgrading of the pesticide industry includes the following aspects. First, adjust the pesticide industry structure, expand the scale of pesticide enterprises and improve their competitive edge through mergers and acquisitions and through their development. Second, adjust the product portfolio of pesticide makers, renovate varieties, strengthen product innovation and process innovation, improve the overall technical level of the pesticide industry, improve the added value and the profit per ton of product, and strengthen enterprises. Third, strengthen environmental protection and fundamentally solve the pesticide-related environmental problems.
After over 60 years of development, China’s pesticide industry has not only built a relatively complete system, but has also developed and trained a number of high-end sci-tech talents, a precondition for improving the overall technical level of the pesticide industry and fundamentally solving the pollution problems.
To overcome the environmental problems of pesticides, the industry must reduce or eliminate waste gas, water and residue from the source of production and treat the pollutants.
The keys to achieving clean production of pesticides through reducing or eliminating wastes at the source are innovation in the synthesis process, improving the atom economy of the reaction, and integrated innovation in treatment processes.
1. Innovation process for imidacloprid production
Imidacloprid is the biggest selling insecticide in the world. In 2011 the global sales value of imidacloprid exceeded US$1.5 billion. Imidacloprid, which was the first nicotine insecticide developed and commercially produced by Bayer CropScience, went on sale in 1991, and now its patent has expired. At present, China’s output of imidacloprid has reached around 30 thousand tons, and China has become the largest producer and exporter of imidacloprid in the world.
2-Chloro-5-chloromethyl pyridine is one of the key intermediates for imidacloprid production. In the course of imidacloprid development, with the constant improvement for the technical level of intermediates and the improvement of the overall process technology, the quality of imidacloprid technical has improved constantly and the production cost has been reduced continually. The price of imidacloprid technical in China reduced from RMB1.2 million per ton in the early 21st century to RMB100 thousand-120 thousand per ton in 2011, and rebounded to RMB150 thousand per ton in 2012.
China has already developed six 2-chloro-5-chloromethyl pyridine industrial processes, three of which start from pyridine derivatives, and the remaining three are cyclization routes. At present, more than 95% of the imidacloprid production units in China use cyclopentadiene-acrolein production process of cyclization routes. The process discharges much waste gas, water and residue, and the wastewater has a high content of COD and inorganic salts, and contains complex organic components. Producing one ton of imidacloprid (100% active ingredient) can produce around 20 tons of high concentration wastewater that is very difficult to treat and seriously pollutes the environment. The survival of imidacloprid depends on fundamentally solving the related environmental problems.
Zou Xiaomao, professor of the Research Institute of Elemento-Organic Chemistry and the State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry at Nankai University and his team undertook the 863 Plan research project “Research of Imidacloprid Innovation Process and Development of Wastewater Treatment Technology,” with support of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Guided by the principle of sustainable development, they have developed innovative and clean processes that hardly generate any waste, have already realized large-scale industrial production and have applied for international and Chinese invention patents. The most important technology involved is an innovative synthesis technology for the key intermediate 2-chloro-5-chloromethyl pyridine. The core of the technology is to improve the atom economy of the reaction while solving the problem of wastes at the source.
At present, most of the cyclization processes for the production of key imidacloprid intermediate 2-chloro-5-chloromethyl pyridine in China use phosphorus oxychloride, and producing one ton of this intermediate currently generates nearly 10 tons of wastewater containing a high concentration of phosphorus. Based on the current annual output of around 30 thousand tons, around 200 thousand tons of wastewater is being generated each year. Besides, the wastewater contains a large amount of DMF (20 thousand-30 thousand tons of DMF is discharged to the environment each year) or its decomposition products, phosphoric acid and other organic impurities, and the COD of the wastewater exceeds 200 thousand mg/L. Using the conventional wastewater treatment methods, the treatment cost is very high and it is difficult to achieve the desired effect. So these treatment methods do not meet the sustainability requirements and have become a kind of bottleneck in the production and application of imidacloprid. At present, treated wastewater does not meet the discharge standard. In addition, the yield in this step of the reaction is relatively low, being only 65%-70%.
The final step for imidacloprid production is a condensation reaction. The yield of the most advanced imidacloprid units in China is 78%-85%. In this reaction, producing one ton of imidacloprid generates 3-5 tons of wastewater, and based on the current domestic output, 90 thousand-150 thousand tons of wastewater is produced each year.
Four domestic enterprises use the new imidacloprid clean production process, promoted by the Pesticide Innovation Industrial Alliance, and those four firms’ combined imidacloprid capacity has reached 12 thousand t/a. The application of new process will annually generate RMB100 million-200 million of direct economic benefits for domestic imidacloprid enterprises, reduce the discharge of high-phosphorus wastewater into the environment by RMB200 thousand-300 thousand tons, and decrease DMF discharge by 20 thousand-30 thousand tons.
2. Sewage treatment in the course of glyphosate production
Improving the atom economy of a chemical reaction can reduce or eliminate waste. However, some wastes like methyl chloride being produced in the course of glyphosate production cannot be reduced or eliminated.
“Chloride Cycle Patented Technology” developed by Zhejiang Wynca Chemical Industrial Group Co., Ltd (SH: 600596) has realized the cyclic utilization of methyl chloride-hydrochloric acid in the glyphosate-silicone cogeneration unit. The advanced technology has been recognized at home and abroad. In recent years, Zhejiang Wynca Chemical Industrial Group Co., Ltd has also developed “Phosphorus Cycle Patented Technology” to completely solve the sewage treatment problem of glyphosate production.
In recent years, there have been many successes in waste treatment at China’s pesticide plants. All of these examples show that by relying on science and technology, China’s pesticide industry can develop sustainably, and transform and upgrade itself.
SOURCE CCR
JGC Corporation (JGC), Chiyoda Corporation (Chiyoda), Technip, and South Korean contractors GS Engineering & Construction (GS) and SK Engineering & Construction (SK) today jointly announced that the joint venture, formed by JGC, Chiyoda, Technip, GS and SK, has received notification of the award of a contract for the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemicals complex in the Nghi Son economic zone in northern Vietnam. The contract was awarded by the Nghi Son Refinery Petrochemical Limited Liability Company, a joint venture between Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd (35.1%), Kuwait Petroleum International (35.1%), Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (25.0%), and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (4.8%). The lump-sum turnkey contract calls for the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and commissioning work for an oil refinery with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels per day. The complex, scheduled for completion in late 2016, will be located in the Thanh Hoa Province in Vietnam, 200 km south of the capital city of Hanoi. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
This project, which is being promoted by Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd., Kuwait Petroleum International, Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation, and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. is a grassroots oil refinery and petrochemical complex project in Vietnam. This project will be the second constructed in Vietnam, and is aimed at satisfying increasing demands for petroleum products to support the progress of Vietnam's motorization, as well as produce petrochemicals for export. Together with Vietnam's first refinery, the Dung Quat refinery (constructed by a consortium of JGC, Technip and others, and completed in 2009), the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex will be a major pillar supporting the country's economic development.
JGC has been targeting marketing activities toward Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, and has been concurrently working on strengthening and expanding JGC Vietnam, an EPC subsidiary of JGC established in Vietnam in 2009. Part of JGC's portion of this project is scheduled to be constructed by JGC Vietnam.
JGC plans to become involved in many more oil refining and petrochemicals projects in Vietnam in the future. JGC has been responsible for the construction of more than fifty oil refineries, and JGC and JGC Vietnam are focusing marketing activities on Southeast Asia in hopes of contributing to building Vietnam's industrial base and furthering economic development.
SOURCE JGC Official Press Release
suspension concentrate
The product contains cyazofamid at 160g/l and is authorized for use as a fungicide
potato
The product is not approved for aquatic or aerial use
The authorisation expiry date is 31 Jan 2019
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emulsifiable concentrate
The product contains fluroxypyr at 150g/l and triclopyr at 150g/l and is authorized for use as a herbicide
amenity grassland, grassland
The product is not approved for aquatic or aerial use
The authorisation expiry date is 30 Nov 2019
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suspension concentrate
The product contains boscalid at 210g/l and epoxiconazole at 75g/l and is authorized for use as a fungicide
barley, durum wheat, oats, rye, triticale, wheat
The product is not approved for aquatic or aerial use
The authorisation expiry date is 31 Jan 2021
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emulsifiable concentrate
The product contains trinexapac-ethyl at 250g/l and is authorized for use as a plant growth regulator
barley (spring), barley (winter), durum wheat, grassland (seed crop), oats, rye, triticale, wheat (winter)
The product is not approved for aquatic or aerial use
The authorisation expiry date is 31 Oct 2019
Construction of Vietnam’s new refinery and petrochemical project in Nghi Son will start in the second quarter of the year, a spokesperson of Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals, which partly owns the project, said on Tuesday.
“We plan to construct in the second quarter of 2013 and construction completion is in third quarter in 2016,” the spokesperson said. “Commercial operation will be in second quarter of 2017,” he told ICIS.
RELEASED ON 15/01/13 (DD/MM/YY)
Evonik Industries is investing an undisclosed amount in the Emerald Cleantech Fund III of Switzerland-based Emerald Technology Ventures, the German specialty chemicals maker said on Tuesday.
“Through the investment in Emerald, Evonik gains access to innovative start-up companies with disruptive technologies in new materials and specialty chemicals including energy technologies and resource efficiency,” it said in a statement.
The term disruptive technology refers to an innovation which can radically transform markets.
Emerald invests in “early and expansion stage” firms in the energy, water, and materials sectors with particular focus on Europe and North America.
Last year, Evonik invested in the High-Tech Grunderfonds II, a German industry seed-stage investor as well as the North-American Pangaea Ventures Fund III, which is focused on new materials and specialty chemicals.
SOURCE ICIS News - For internal use only
Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) is likely to start commercial operations at its new 60,000 tonne/year super absorbent polymer (SAP) plant located at Mailiao in February, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Trial runs are currently being conducted at the plant, the source said without further elaboration.
“If nothing goes wrong, commercial operations are likely to begin by February,” the source added.
SAP is primarily used in the production of diapers and feminine hygiene products.
RELEASED ON 14/01/13 (DD/MM/YY)