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DATE : 2014-01-20
The US acetyls chain should see more price increases and significant maintenance activity in the first and second quarters of the new year.
Most of the pricing talk centers on vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), with recent increases in spot prices thought to be just a glimpse of bigger moves that sources see on the horizon for that market in early 2014.
“The mess is going to be in January,” said a Latin American buyer, referring to a price jump of $50-100/tonne anticipated by some as a result of VAM plant closings in Europe and a possible, if not likely, tightening of supply in the US.
Two plant closings in the UK and Spain in late 2013 set off what Latin American VAM watchers see as a chain reaction.
Tightening supply in Europe will require more material from the US, which also exports to Latin America.
KURARAY IMPACT
US domestic VAM supply could also tighten because of DuPont's recent deal to sell its glass and vinyls business to Japan-based Kuraray.
Speculation among industry sources holds that the deal could reduce the supply of VAM in the merchant market because Kuraray might use most of the material from DuPont's US VAM unit in La Porte, Texas, for internal use. Kuraray will own the plant as part of the deal. A Latin American seller said the deal should reduce the number of suppliers and cause prices to rise.
“And that’s good for the business,” the seller said.
A number of plant turnarounds could also move prices higher, at least temporarily. Celanese CEO Mark Rohr jokingly referred to them in a conference call as “a couple of big pokes in the eye” in the first two quarters of 2014.
“Yes, in the first half of the year, you’re going to see a couple of big turnarounds,” Rohr said.
The Celanese CEO did not name any plants, but historically the spring and early summer months have been a popular season for maintenance work at US VAM and acetic acid plants.
In 2013, DuPont, LyondellBasell and Dow Chemical did maintenance at Texas VAM units, and Celanese conducted maintenance at an acetic acid plant near Houston in June and July.
SOURCE Icis Chemical News
The US acetyls chain should see more price increases and significant maintenance activity in the first and second quarters of the new year.
Most of the pricing talk centers on vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), with recent increases in spot prices thought to be just a glimpse of bigger moves that sources see on the horizon for that market in early 2014.
“The mess is going to be in January,” said a Latin American buyer, referring to a price jump of $50-100/tonne anticipated by some as a result of VAM plant closings in Europe and a possible, if not likely, tightening of supply in the US.
Two plant closings in the UK and Spain in late 2013 set off what Latin American VAM watchers see as a chain reaction.
Tightening supply in Europe will require more material from the US, which also exports to Latin America.
KURARAY IMPACT
US domestic VAM supply could also tighten because of DuPont's recent deal to sell its glass and vinyls business to Japan-based Kuraray.
Speculation among industry sources holds that the deal could reduce the supply of VAM in the merchant market because Kuraray might use most of the material from DuPont's US VAM unit in La Porte, Texas, for internal use. Kuraray will own the plant as part of the deal. A Latin American seller said the deal should reduce the number of suppliers and cause prices to rise.
“And that’s good for the business,” the seller said.
A number of plant turnarounds could also move prices higher, at least temporarily. Celanese CEO Mark Rohr jokingly referred to them in a conference call as “a couple of big pokes in the eye” in the first two quarters of 2014.
“Yes, in the first half of the year, you’re going to see a couple of big turnarounds,” Rohr said.
The Celanese CEO did not name any plants, but historically the spring and early summer months have been a popular season for maintenance work at US VAM and acetic acid plants.
In 2013, DuPont, LyondellBasell and Dow Chemical did maintenance at Texas VAM units, and Celanese conducted maintenance at an acetic acid plant near Houston in June and July.
SOURCE Icis Chemical News
DATE : 2014-01-17
A temporary shortage in the United States of one of the leading flu medicines used to treat children with the sometimes deadly virus has been resolved, Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, said on Thursday.
Due to high demand and packaging delays, Roche had experienced a shortage of supplies of the liquid version of the medicine, known a Tamiflu Oral Suspension, used to treat children under the age of 13 and adults unable to swallow pills.
"We now anticipate having sufficient supply of both the liquid and capsule forms of Tamiflu to meet demand for this flu season," Roche spokeswoman Tara Iannuccillo said in an emailed statement.
The US Food and Drug Administration has added Tamiflu OS to the list of resolved drug shortages on its website with the notation "no supply issues anticipated."
Tamiflu is used to reduce the severity of the flu when taken at the outset of symptoms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people get flu shots to prevent the virus.
So far this season, 35 U.S. states have reported widespread cases of flu and another 12 said they had regional influenza activity, with 10 pediatric deaths associated with the virus reported, according to the CDC.
Thousands of people die every year from flu, which typically peaks in the United States between the months of October and March.
Despite the brief shortage of liquid Tamiflu, there has been a continuous supply of the 75 milligram capsules, Roche said.
Tamiflu is manufactured by Roche's U.S. biotech unit Genetech and supplied to retail pharmacies through a network of distributors.
SOURCE Reuters
DATE : 2014-01-16
According to news reporting out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, by VerticalNews editors, research stated, "Ionic liquids feature a combination of properties that make them very interesting solvents for polymers, but many questions remain regarding the thermodynamics of polymer/ionic liquid solutions. In this work, the lower-critical-solution-temperature (LCST) phase behavior of poly(n-butyl methacrylate) (PnBMA) in mixtures of the ionic liquids 1-butyl-3-m ethylimidazolium:bis (trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([BMIm][TFSI]) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium:TFSI ([EMIm][TFSI]) is characterized by transmittance, light scattering, and small-angle neutron scattering measurements."
Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Minnesota, "Several relevant thermodynamic parameters are easily tuned by varying the ionic liquid composition. In particular, the cloud point, spinodal, and Theta temperatures are all found to increase linearly with [BMIm] content. The interaction parameters, chi, are determined as a function of temperature and concentration using three different methods, and the results from each method are compared. The entropic and enthalpic components of the interaction parameter, chi, are also found to vary linearly with [BMIm] content in the ionic liquid, increasing and decreasing, respectively. The increase in the enthalpic driving force for mixing with increasing [BMIm] content dominates over the decrease in the entropic penalty for mixing, leading to improved solubility. This result is discussed in terms of molecular interactions and oriented solvation."
According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This work characterizes the solution thermodynamics of one representative system in a very interesting class of polymer solutions, and provides insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying its LCST phase behavior."
For more information on this research see: Lower Critical Solution Temperature Phase Behavior of Poly(n-butyl methacrylate) in Ionic Liquid Mixtures. Macromolecules, 2013;46(23):9464-9472. Macromolecules can be contacted at: Amer Chemical Soc, 1155 16TH St, NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting M.L. Hoarfrost, University of Minnesota, Dept. of Chem Engn & Mat Sci, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States. Additional authors for this research include Y.P. He and T.P. Lodge.
SOURCE Physics Week
According to news reporting out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, by VerticalNews editors, research stated, "Ionic liquids feature a combination of properties that make them very interesting solvents for polymers, but many questions remain regarding the thermodynamics of polymer/ionic liquid solutions. In this work, the lower-critical-solution-temperature (LCST) phase behavior of poly(n-butyl methacrylate) (PnBMA) in mixtures of the ionic liquids 1-butyl-3-m ethylimidazolium:bis (trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([BMIm][TFSI]) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium:TFSI ([EMIm][TFSI]) is characterized by transmittance, light scattering, and small-angle neutron scattering measurements."
Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Minnesota, "Several relevant thermodynamic parameters are easily tuned by varying the ionic liquid composition. In particular, the cloud point, spinodal, and Theta temperatures are all found to increase linearly with [BMIm] content. The interaction parameters, chi, are determined as a function of temperature and concentration using three different methods, and the results from each method are compared. The entropic and enthalpic components of the interaction parameter, chi, are also found to vary linearly with [BMIm] content in the ionic liquid, increasing and decreasing, respectively. The increase in the enthalpic driving force for mixing with increasing [BMIm] content dominates over the decrease in the entropic penalty for mixing, leading to improved solubility. This result is discussed in terms of molecular interactions and oriented solvation."
According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This work characterizes the solution thermodynamics of one representative system in a very interesting class of polymer solutions, and provides insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying its LCST phase behavior."
For more information on this research see: Lower Critical Solution Temperature Phase Behavior of Poly(n-butyl methacrylate) in Ionic Liquid Mixtures. Macromolecules, 2013;46(23):9464-9472. Macromolecules can be contacted at: Amer Chemical Soc, 1155 16TH St, NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting M.L. Hoarfrost, University of Minnesota, Dept. of Chem Engn & Mat Sci, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States. Additional authors for this research include Y.P. He and T.P. Lodge.
SOURCE Physics Week
DATE : 2014-01-17
Taiwan’s Dairen Chemical plans to further reduce production at its 350,000 tonne/year vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant in Singapore on the back of squeezed margins because of firm cost of feedstock ethylene, a company source said on Friday.
The plant in Jurong Island is currently running at 70% of capacity, the source said.
The exact date and schedule of the operating rate cut have yet to be finalised.
On 10 January, Dairen Chemical announced in a letter to its customers a $120/tonne price hike for all grades of VAM for all markets, with further possible price increases after the Lunar New Year.
The Lunar New Year falls on 31 January 2014.
“This increase is necessary to sustain our commitment to deliver high quality products and reliable supply to our customers,” according to the statement.
Dairen’s selling indications were mentioned at around $1,100/tonne CFR (cost and freight) SE (southeast) Asia and at above $1,100/tonne CFR South Asia for February shipments.
But selling interest from other suppliers at prices below $1,100/tonne CFR Asia could still be located, according to market sources. Buying ideas were at $1,050-1,100/tonne CFR SE Asia.
“Buyers feel that prices are too high but we will stand firm,” the source from Dairen Chemical said, adding that the company anticipates lower transaction volumes.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, rising prices of upstream methanol and acetic acid, as well as steady-to-firm ethylene feedstock costs, prompted major VAM producers to eye a $20-50/tonne hike on December VAM shipments, at $1,050/tonne CFR (cost & freight) Asia.
Largely unchanged demand and supply fundamentals, however, hampered producers’ attempts to raise their prices at that time.
Dairen Chemical operates two other VAM plants in Mailiao, Taiwan, comprising a 300,000 tonne/year No 2 plant and a 350,000 tonne/year No 3 plant.
SOURCE Icis News
Taiwan’s Dairen Chemical plans to further reduce production at its 350,000 tonne/year vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant in Singapore on the back of squeezed margins because of firm cost of feedstock ethylene, a company source said on Friday.
The plant in Jurong Island is currently running at 70% of capacity, the source said.
The exact date and schedule of the operating rate cut have yet to be finalised.
On 10 January, Dairen Chemical announced in a letter to its customers a $120/tonne price hike for all grades of VAM for all markets, with further possible price increases after the Lunar New Year.
The Lunar New Year falls on 31 January 2014.
“This increase is necessary to sustain our commitment to deliver high quality products and reliable supply to our customers,” according to the statement.
Dairen’s selling indications were mentioned at around $1,100/tonne CFR (cost and freight) SE (southeast) Asia and at above $1,100/tonne CFR South Asia for February shipments.
But selling interest from other suppliers at prices below $1,100/tonne CFR Asia could still be located, according to market sources. Buying ideas were at $1,050-1,100/tonne CFR SE Asia.
“Buyers feel that prices are too high but we will stand firm,” the source from Dairen Chemical said, adding that the company anticipates lower transaction volumes.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, rising prices of upstream methanol and acetic acid, as well as steady-to-firm ethylene feedstock costs, prompted major VAM producers to eye a $20-50/tonne hike on December VAM shipments, at $1,050/tonne CFR (cost & freight) Asia.
Largely unchanged demand and supply fundamentals, however, hampered producers’ attempts to raise their prices at that time.
Dairen Chemical operates two other VAM plants in Mailiao, Taiwan, comprising a 300,000 tonne/year No 2 plant and a 350,000 tonne/year No 3 plant.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-01-16
BASF PETRONAS Chemicals plans to restart operations at its crude 160,000 tonne/year crude acrylic acid (CAA) facility in Kuantan at Pahang, Malaysia, by 18 January, a company source said on Thursday.
The unit is down for unscheduled maintenance, according to the company source.
Further details about the shutdown were not immediately available.
The company shut its CAA unit in the week of 6 January because of technical difficulties, according to several market sources.
SOURCE Icis News
BASF PETRONAS Chemicals plans to restart operations at its crude 160,000 tonne/year crude acrylic acid (CAA) facility in Kuantan at Pahang, Malaysia, by 18 January, a company source said on Thursday.
The unit is down for unscheduled maintenance, according to the company source.
Further details about the shutdown were not immediately available.
The company shut its CAA unit in the week of 6 January because of technical difficulties, according to several market sources.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-01-15
PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has start operations at its new butene-1 and butadiene (BD) facility in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The facility, which will begin commercial operations in 1Q 2014, has a capacity of 75,000 tonnes/y of BD and 25,000 tonnes/y of butene-1.
“The plant is now under trial runs and if it goes well and the product is on-spec, we may be able to start commercial production in February,” the source said.
The company does not have downstream plants for BD. Most of the production from the new plant will cater to its domestic customers in Thailand.
SOURCE Icis News
PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has start operations at its new butene-1 and butadiene (BD) facility in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The facility, which will begin commercial operations in 1Q 2014, has a capacity of 75,000 tonnes/y of BD and 25,000 tonnes/y of butene-1.
“The plant is now under trial runs and if it goes well and the product is on-spec, we may be able to start commercial production in February,” the source said.
The company does not have downstream plants for BD. Most of the production from the new plant will cater to its domestic customers in Thailand.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-01-17
China’s Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co plans to shut its 90,000 tonne/year vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant at Jinshan, Shanghai, on 20 January on account of firm ethylene feedstock cost, sources close to the company said on Thursday.
The plant is producing VAM at a monthly rate of 2,000 tonnes, some sources said, adding that the producer has halted sales.
The shutdown may last for two to three months, the sources added.
The company’s other 20,000 tonne/year VAM unit at the same site has been idled since 2011 on environmental issues.
SOURCE Icis News
China’s Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co plans to shut its 90,000 tonne/year vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant at Jinshan, Shanghai, on 20 January on account of firm ethylene feedstock cost, sources close to the company said on Thursday.
The plant is producing VAM at a monthly rate of 2,000 tonnes, some sources said, adding that the producer has halted sales.
The shutdown may last for two to three months, the sources added.
The company’s other 20,000 tonne/year VAM unit at the same site has been idled since 2011 on environmental issues.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-01-16
Asahi Kasei is in plans to take off-stream its No.3 styrene monomer (SM) plant for maintenance turnaround.
A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the plant is likely to be taken off-stream in early March 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream till early April 2014.
Located in Mizushima, Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 390,000 mt/year.
SOURCE PolymerUpdate
Asahi Kasei is in plans to take off-stream its No.3 styrene monomer (SM) plant for maintenance turnaround.
A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the plant is likely to be taken off-stream in early March 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream till early April 2014.
Located in Mizushima, Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 390,000 mt/year.
SOURCE PolymerUpdate
DATE : 2013-01-11
Ningxia Younglight Energy Chemical is likely to commence commercial production at a new vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant. A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is likely to start in March-April 2014.
To be located at Yinchuan, Ningxia province in China, the plant will have a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.No 6 cracker planned to be shut by CPC Corp for maintenance.
SOURCE PolymerUpdate
Ningxia Younglight Energy Chemical is likely to commence commercial production at a new vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant. A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is likely to start in March-April 2014.
To be located at Yinchuan, Ningxia province in China, the plant will have a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.No 6 cracker planned to be shut by CPC Corp for maintenance.
SOURCE PolymerUpdate
DATE : 2014-01-13
Styrolution will end a 65-day shutdown at its Texas City styrene monomer (SM) facility in Texas by the end of this week, a source with the company said on Monday.
The shutdown began back in early November to improve production efficiencies and to further strengthen its technological position, according to the company.
The Texas City facility has a styrene capacity of 485,000 tonnes/year.
SOURCE Icis News
Styrolution will end a 65-day shutdown at its Texas City styrene monomer (SM) facility in Texas by the end of this week, a source with the company said on Monday.
The shutdown began back in early November to improve production efficiencies and to further strengthen its technological position, according to the company.
The Texas City facility has a styrene capacity of 485,000 tonnes/year.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-01-11
Founded in 2008, California-based storage startup EnerVault has remained relatively quiet on its progress.
The flow battery market is, after all, defined more by grandiose claims from companies than by commercial projects in the ground.
But with $24.5 million in funding and an executive team hailing from SunPower, Tesla, and a range of battery, power plant engineering and fuel cell companies, EnerVault is now going public with its performance expectations.
"We've been particularly quiet about achievements," said Jim Pape, EnerVault's CEO and former president of residential and commercial solar at SunPower. "Part of that is our investors; part of that is that we don't want to put out statements we have to later jump over."
Here's a bold statement that EnerVault is now ready to make: The capital cost of its first commercial project, a 1-megawatt-hour system completing construction this week, will get the company close to beating DOE's cost targes for commercial-scale redox flow batteries.
That "magic number" for capital cost is $250 per kilowatt-hour and a levelized cost of energy at $0.20 per kilowatt-hour. Jim Pape and EnerVault Chief Strategy Officer Craig Horne didn't provide specific data, but said the capital costs for current bids would be "well below" DOE's targets and their systems will "compete on an LCOE basis" with peaking natural gas plants in California.
The current project, located in Turlock, California, will provide 250 kilowatts of power for four hours to Pacific Gas & Electric. It was supported by the DOE's storage demonstration program under the stimulus package, which provided $4.7 million in assistance. The flow battery will be co-located with a PV system and a water pump.
A storage tank is installed at EnerVault's first commercial site in Turlock, California. Image credit: EnerVault
Flow batteries convert chemical energy into electricity by pumping electrolytes through a stack of electrochemical cells. EnerVault's "Engineered Cascade" technology arranges the stacks in a series of stages optimized to the electrolytes' state of charge, which the company says better utilizes the electrolytes by operating in a broader state-of-charge range. The initial commercial systems are expected to be more than 60 percent round-trip efficient, all losses included.
That's significantly lower than lithium-ion batteries, which offer efficiencies above 80 percent. Two of EnerVault's competitors developing aqueous-based electrolyte storage, Eos and Aquion Energy, claim 75 percent and 85 percent efficiencies, respectively.
EnerVault's flow battery technology uses iron-chromium electrolytes. Horne said the chemistry is safer and less acidic than vanadium ("you can spill it on your hand and it's a mild irritant") and less expensive than other chemistries being developed ("they are universally abundant elements").
However, reliability can be an issue due to the pumping systems needed to circulate electrolytes. That's why leading storage developer AES, a company open to a variety of technologies, says it prefers "sealed batteries" like lithium-ion and is still skeptical about new battery companies that don't have a "track record and balance sheet."
Horne said EnerVault's hydraulic pumping system will last "several thousand hours" and could be replaced within a matter of hours. He also said the low chemical aggressiveness of iron chromium will improve the lifespan of the battery. But that will only be proven when the Turlock project is commissioned and has been operating long enough to test those projections.
For the last year and a half, EnerVault has been running a 30-kilowatt demonstration system in its laboratory. Pape said the project was coming "within a few percent" of forecasted performance, giving the team confidence in its commercial project.
"We continue to match our models. We're really on the right track and we're going to be well below the DOE target" for cost, he said. "We see ourselves as an equivalent to a combustion turbine."
EnerVault's investor set includes materials company 3M and French oil & gas major Total, which Pape said have provided important technical and strategic advice for deployment.
Because of lower efficiencies, toxicity concerns and reliability issues, flow batteries are still a very small portion of the storage mix, however.
According to the Department of Energy's global energy storage database, there are 24.6 gigawatts of total storage projects in operation around the U.S. There are 28.8 megawatts of flow batteries in the U.S. pipeline -- but only 950 kilowatts in actual operation. Around the world, there are only 13 megawatts of flow batteries in operation.
While deployment is limited, flow batteries do offer longer, more consistent energy delivery -- a reason why startups and project developers are still attracted to the technology.
Utilities with a high sensitivity to technology risk may not be as enthusiastic. But Pape said the storage procurement process is becoming more favorable for flow batteries. Southern California Edison's recent 50-megawatt storage target includes technologies that can provide four hours of service, for example.
"A procurement system aligned with long-duration storage is a golden opportunity," he said. That sets the technology apart from lithium-ion, which companies with competing technologies say is better suited for frequency regulation and spinning reserve.
At 250 kilowatts of capacity, EnerVault's first commercial project is significantly smaller than some of the biggest vanadium flow batteries in operation today. But it's the biggest iron-chromium flow battery in the world "by a factor of ten" in energy delivery, said Horne.
In an industry with limited commercial deployment and field testing, EnerVault's flow battery will be another step toward better understanding the cost, reliability and energy delivery capabilities of the technology.
SOURCE TheEnergycollective
Founded in 2008, California-based storage startup EnerVault has remained relatively quiet on its progress.
The flow battery market is, after all, defined more by grandiose claims from companies than by commercial projects in the ground.
But with $24.5 million in funding and an executive team hailing from SunPower, Tesla, and a range of battery, power plant engineering and fuel cell companies, EnerVault is now going public with its performance expectations.
"We've been particularly quiet about achievements," said Jim Pape, EnerVault's CEO and former president of residential and commercial solar at SunPower. "Part of that is our investors; part of that is that we don't want to put out statements we have to later jump over."
Here's a bold statement that EnerVault is now ready to make: The capital cost of its first commercial project, a 1-megawatt-hour system completing construction this week, will get the company close to beating DOE's cost targes for commercial-scale redox flow batteries.
That "magic number" for capital cost is $250 per kilowatt-hour and a levelized cost of energy at $0.20 per kilowatt-hour. Jim Pape and EnerVault Chief Strategy Officer Craig Horne didn't provide specific data, but said the capital costs for current bids would be "well below" DOE's targets and their systems will "compete on an LCOE basis" with peaking natural gas plants in California.
The current project, located in Turlock, California, will provide 250 kilowatts of power for four hours to Pacific Gas & Electric. It was supported by the DOE's storage demonstration program under the stimulus package, which provided $4.7 million in assistance. The flow battery will be co-located with a PV system and a water pump.
A storage tank is installed at EnerVault's first commercial site in Turlock, California. Image credit: EnerVault
Flow batteries convert chemical energy into electricity by pumping electrolytes through a stack of electrochemical cells. EnerVault's "Engineered Cascade" technology arranges the stacks in a series of stages optimized to the electrolytes' state of charge, which the company says better utilizes the electrolytes by operating in a broader state-of-charge range. The initial commercial systems are expected to be more than 60 percent round-trip efficient, all losses included.
That's significantly lower than lithium-ion batteries, which offer efficiencies above 80 percent. Two of EnerVault's competitors developing aqueous-based electrolyte storage, Eos and Aquion Energy, claim 75 percent and 85 percent efficiencies, respectively.
EnerVault's flow battery technology uses iron-chromium electrolytes. Horne said the chemistry is safer and less acidic than vanadium ("you can spill it on your hand and it's a mild irritant") and less expensive than other chemistries being developed ("they are universally abundant elements").
However, reliability can be an issue due to the pumping systems needed to circulate electrolytes. That's why leading storage developer AES, a company open to a variety of technologies, says it prefers "sealed batteries" like lithium-ion and is still skeptical about new battery companies that don't have a "track record and balance sheet."
Horne said EnerVault's hydraulic pumping system will last "several thousand hours" and could be replaced within a matter of hours. He also said the low chemical aggressiveness of iron chromium will improve the lifespan of the battery. But that will only be proven when the Turlock project is commissioned and has been operating long enough to test those projections.
For the last year and a half, EnerVault has been running a 30-kilowatt demonstration system in its laboratory. Pape said the project was coming "within a few percent" of forecasted performance, giving the team confidence in its commercial project.
"We continue to match our models. We're really on the right track and we're going to be well below the DOE target" for cost, he said. "We see ourselves as an equivalent to a combustion turbine."
EnerVault's investor set includes materials company 3M and French oil & gas major Total, which Pape said have provided important technical and strategic advice for deployment.
Because of lower efficiencies, toxicity concerns and reliability issues, flow batteries are still a very small portion of the storage mix, however.
According to the Department of Energy's global energy storage database, there are 24.6 gigawatts of total storage projects in operation around the U.S. There are 28.8 megawatts of flow batteries in the U.S. pipeline -- but only 950 kilowatts in actual operation. Around the world, there are only 13 megawatts of flow batteries in operation.
While deployment is limited, flow batteries do offer longer, more consistent energy delivery -- a reason why startups and project developers are still attracted to the technology.
Utilities with a high sensitivity to technology risk may not be as enthusiastic. But Pape said the storage procurement process is becoming more favorable for flow batteries. Southern California Edison's recent 50-megawatt storage target includes technologies that can provide four hours of service, for example.
"A procurement system aligned with long-duration storage is a golden opportunity," he said. That sets the technology apart from lithium-ion, which companies with competing technologies say is better suited for frequency regulation and spinning reserve.
At 250 kilowatts of capacity, EnerVault's first commercial project is significantly smaller than some of the biggest vanadium flow batteries in operation today. But it's the biggest iron-chromium flow battery in the world "by a factor of ten" in energy delivery, said Horne.
In an industry with limited commercial deployment and field testing, EnerVault's flow battery will be another step toward better understanding the cost, reliability and energy delivery capabilities of the technology.
SOURCE TheEnergycollective
DATE : 2014-01-10
Japan's Asahi Kasei is expected to shut down its 200,000 tonne/year acrylonitrile (ACN) plant at Mizushima next month for scheduled maintenance, a company source said on Friday.
“The plant will be shut around mid-February and the shutdown will last around 50 days,” the source said. Currently, the plant is running at around 80% of capacity, according to the source.
In Kawasaki, the company has a 150,000 tonne/year ACN plant that is currently operating at below 70% of capacity, the source said.
SOURCE Icis News
Japan's Asahi Kasei is expected to shut down its 200,000 tonne/year acrylonitrile (ACN) plant at Mizushima next month for scheduled maintenance, a company source said on Friday.
“The plant will be shut around mid-February and the shutdown will last around 50 days,” the source said. Currently, the plant is running at around 80% of capacity, according to the source.
In Kawasaki, the company has a 150,000 tonne/year ACN plant that is currently operating at below 70% of capacity, the source said.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-01-09
Butadiene deliveries from Total in France were expected to return to normal by the end of January, consumer sources told Platts Thursday.
A force majeure in place since strike action in December, was expected to be lifted soon, they said. Industrial action at the Gonfreville refinery in France ended on December 27. Total would not comment on its operations.
"News is better than I thought. They hope to restart earlier than planned...I think that they will be up by the time of the start of the (February butadiene) negociations. They are producing at Lavera and from Feyzin," a consumer source said.
"We are getting product, but it is reduced," the source said. We had to find 600-700 tonnes in December and that was findable, even though it was difficult."
A second consumer source, who also expected a January restart, said he has been receiving deliveries from Total since the start of January, adding: "The plant is more on a ramp-up phase now".
Both sources said mechanical issues at Lavera, the Total-Ineos plant, were now revolved. "They solved the labor issue at Gonfreville but they had a mechanical issue and they declared FM (force majeure) and it is still in FM due to mechanical issues," the first consumer said.
The Gonfreville site produces 60,000 mt/year of butadiene, while the Lavera JV unit has a capacity of 50,000 mt/year.
SOURCE Platts
Butadiene deliveries from Total in France were expected to return to normal by the end of January, consumer sources told Platts Thursday.
A force majeure in place since strike action in December, was expected to be lifted soon, they said. Industrial action at the Gonfreville refinery in France ended on December 27. Total would not comment on its operations.
"News is better than I thought. They hope to restart earlier than planned...I think that they will be up by the time of the start of the (February butadiene) negociations. They are producing at Lavera and from Feyzin," a consumer source said.
"We are getting product, but it is reduced," the source said. We had to find 600-700 tonnes in December and that was findable, even though it was difficult."
A second consumer source, who also expected a January restart, said he has been receiving deliveries from Total since the start of January, adding: "The plant is more on a ramp-up phase now".
Both sources said mechanical issues at Lavera, the Total-Ineos plant, were now revolved. "They solved the labor issue at Gonfreville but they had a mechanical issue and they declared FM (force majeure) and it is still in FM due to mechanical issues," the first consumer said.
The Gonfreville site produces 60,000 mt/year of butadiene, while the Lavera JV unit has a capacity of 50,000 mt/year.
SOURCE Platts
DATE : 2014-01-09
Solvay Aroma Performance is to substantially increase production capacity for methyl hydroquinone. The firm currently produces the compound
at Saint Fons, France and in China. The project will double current capacity. However Solvay has not given any specific details on the capacity
and investment involved. Methyl hydroquinone is used for monomer production and by the agrochemicals sector. Solvay Aroma Performance has doubled
production capacity for fluoroaliphatic derivatives at Salindres, France. It has increased production of triflic acid and triflic acid anhydride and
intermediates such as potassium triflinate. The project involved an investment of EUR 10 M. Solvay has also doubled lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide capacity in China. This derivative is used for liquid crystals, pharmaceutical intermediates and battery electrolytes.
SOURCE Icis News
Solvay Aroma Performance is to substantially increase production capacity for methyl hydroquinone. The firm currently produces the compound
at Saint Fons, France and in China. The project will double current capacity. However Solvay has not given any specific details on the capacity
and investment involved. Methyl hydroquinone is used for monomer production and by the agrochemicals sector. Solvay Aroma Performance has doubled
production capacity for fluoroaliphatic derivatives at Salindres, France. It has increased production of triflic acid and triflic acid anhydride and
intermediates such as potassium triflinate. The project involved an investment of EUR 10 M. Solvay has also doubled lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide capacity in China. This derivative is used for liquid crystals, pharmaceutical intermediates and battery electrolytes.
SOURCE Icis News
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/one-year-later-no-issues-for-boeing-78 7-battery-redesign-394664/
The investigative work by the NTSB should be complete by late March. The investigation team will then begin preparing a final report, which will be presented to the board at a public meeting in Washington DC in the fourth quarter, the NTSB says.
The announcement came the day after the one-year anniversary of a still mysterious incident in which an installed lithium-ion battery overheated inside a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston Logan airport.
A second lithium-ion battery incident eight days later caused an All Nippon Airways 787 over Japan to make an emergency landing.
The close frequency of both battery events raised alarms among regulators and some 787 operators. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the 787 fleet on 16 January. It took Boeing three months to develop a technical solution that could be approved by the FAA, even as the worldwide fleet idled and deliveries halted.
In the end, the episode did not meaningfully harm Boeing financially or disrupt a 787 production ramp-up, but it did leave a mark on the industry. Airbus quickly launched a parallel certification for the A350-900 using both nickel cadmium and lithium ion batteries.
But the effects on Boeing and 787 operators were relatively short-lived. The fleet returned to flying status in May with a redesigned battery installation that has so far proven reliable despite the lack of an identified probable cause.
The new installation was presented as a compromise. Boeing rejected calls to replace the battery with a more traditional nickel cadmium unit, or to redesign the existing battery using more cells or a less volatile form of lithium-based power.
Instead, the company retained the lithium-cobalt-dioxide chemistry of the 32V batteries, as well as the configuration based on eight large cells.
Boeing also made several changes both inside and outside the battery to make it safer. It improved the software that monitors the cells to detect and control temperature fluctuations before they can spin out of control.
If the monitoring software failed to do its job, Boeing added four layers of additional protections against a battery-ignited fire, which could be catastrophic at any altitude.
The revised battery design increased the spacing between each of the eight internal cells, added ceramic heat shields between each cell, enclosed the battery in a stainless steel box and installed plumbing to vent any exhaust offboard.
If any individual cell begins to overheat, the new design should prevent the higher temperature from spreading to other cells in a condition called a thermal runaway.
Eight months later, the new battery installation has proven reliable so far. Boeing’s elaborate layers of protection against over-heating have not yet been tested in service because none of the battery cells have malfunctioned.
“Since the certification of the improved battery system and the return-to-service for the 787 Dreamliner fleet, there have been no battery cell failures,” Boeing says in a statement to Flightglobal.
The overall system has not been free from blemish. In November, both ANA and JAL both replaced battery chargers on the 787s after the system issued a warning that turned out to be a false alarm. It was not clear if the incidents were related.
But neither issue approached the severity of a thermal runaway inside a lithium-ion battery. Boeing designed the new battery installation to “address a range of potential causes”, the company says.
It is possible that the NTSB investigation could recommend additional battery changes for the 787 fleet. The NTSB’s investigators have teamed with Underwriter’s Laboratories to perform system level tests of the 787’s rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the agency says. The NTSB also reviewed the standards that industry uses to analyse the safety of lithium-ion batteries.
Boeing selected the original GS Yuasa lithium-ion batteries for the 787 in 2005. At the time, such a battery’s safety was judged using a nail penetration test. In 2008, the aviation industry adopted a new informal standard that rendered a nail penetration test obsolete. Boeing, however, never went back to test the 787 battery with the new standard.
The industry committee — RTCA DO-311 – that adopts such consensus standards for lithium-ion batteries meets again in February to consider new updates to the standard for testing lithium-ion batteries. Such revisions could eventually form the basis for an FAA-imposed regulation, as the agency still uses “special conditions” process to certificate the airworthiness of power systems that include lithium-ion battery cells.
SOURCE FlightGlobal
DATE : 2014-01-08
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says today that it expects to release at the end of this year a probable cause for the Boeing 787 battery malfunctions that grounded the fleet for four months in 2013.
The investigative work by the NTSB should be complete by late March. The investigation team will then begin preparing a final report, which will be presented to the board at a public meeting in Washington DC in the fourth quarter, the NTSB says.
The announcement came the day after the one-year anniversary of a still mysterious incident in which an installed lithium-ion battery overheated inside a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston Logan airport.
A second lithium-ion battery incident eight days later caused an All Nippon Airways 787 over Japan to make an emergency landing.
The close frequency of both battery events raised alarms among regulators and some 787 operators. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the 787 fleet on 16 January. It took Boeing three months to develop a technical solution that could be approved by the FAA, even as the worldwide fleet idled and deliveries halted.
In the end, the episode did not meaningfully harm Boeing financially or disrupt a 787 production ramp-up, but it did leave a mark on the industry. Airbus quickly launched a parallel certification for the A350-900 using both nickel cadmium and lithium ion batteries.
But the effects on Boeing and 787 operators were relatively short-lived. The fleet returned to flying status in May with a redesigned battery installation that has so far proven reliable despite the lack of an identified probable cause.
The new installation was presented as a compromise. Boeing rejected calls to replace the battery with a more traditional nickel cadmium unit, or to redesign the existing battery using more cells or a less volatile form of lithium-based power.
Instead, the company retained the lithium-cobalt-dioxide chemistry of the 32V batteries, as well as the configuration based on eight large cells.
Boeing also made several changes both inside and outside the battery to make it safer. It improved the software that monitors the cells to detect and control temperature fluctuations before they can spin out of control.
If the monitoring software failed to do its job, Boeing added four layers of additional protections against a battery-ignited fire, which could be catastrophic at any altitude.
The revised battery design increased the spacing between each of the eight internal cells, added ceramic heat shields between each cell, enclosed the battery in a stainless steel box and installed plumbing to vent any exhaust offboard.
If any individual cell begins to overheat, the new design should prevent the higher temperature from spreading to other cells in a condition called a thermal runaway.
Eight months later, the new battery installation has proven reliable so far. Boeing’s elaborate layers of protection against over-heating have not yet been tested in service because none of the battery cells have malfunctioned.
“Since the certification of the improved battery system and the return-to-service for the 787 Dreamliner fleet, there have been no battery cell failures,” Boeing says in a statement to Flightglobal.
The overall system has not been free from blemish. In November, both ANA and JAL both replaced battery chargers on the 787s after the system issued a warning that turned out to be a false alarm. It was not clear if the incidents were related.
But neither issue approached the severity of a thermal runaway inside a lithium-ion battery. Boeing designed the new battery installation to “address a range of potential causes”, the company says.
It is possible that the NTSB investigation could recommend additional battery changes for the 787 fleet. The NTSB’s investigators have teamed with Underwriter’s Laboratories to perform system level tests of the 787’s rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the agency says. The NTSB also reviewed the standards that industry uses to analyse the safety of lithium-ion batteries.
Boeing selected the original GS Yuasa lithium-ion batteries for the 787 in 2005. At the time, such a battery’s safety was judged using a nail penetration test. In 2008, the aviation industry adopted a new informal standard that rendered a nail penetration test obsolete. Boeing, however, never went back to test the 787 battery with the new standard.
The industry committee — RTCA DO-311 – that adopts such consensus standards for lithium-ion batteries meets again in February to consider new updates to the standard for testing lithium-ion batteries. Such revisions could eventually form the basis for an FAA-imposed regulation, as the agency still uses “special conditions” process to certificate the airworthiness of power systems that include lithium-ion battery cells.
SOURCE FlightGlobal