Located at BASF’s Antwerp site, the new production plant for alkylethanolamines will help the company to increase its global capacity by 30 % to more than 140,000 metric tons annually. Start-up of the project is expected to be in 2024.

The European Union relies heavily on natural gas imports from Russia and the recent invasion of Ukraine by the Putin Government has changed the dynamics of the global energy market. In this background, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has listed out a 10-point plan on how Europe can significantly cut natural gas imports from Russia within a year.

With an aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Tatneft plans to increase the use of fiberglass pipelines as compared to metal pipes at its sites. For this, new fiberglass pipelines will be constructed at the company’s new Bavly plant in Russia.

Shin-Etsu Chemical will invest the hefty amount to expand its facilities in order to strengthen its silicones business in view of growing demand. The facility investments will be implemented at its main plant, the Gunma Complex in Gunma Prefecture, as well as the Takefu Plant in Fukui Prefecture and the Naoetsu Plant in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The firm intends to complete these capacity-expansion projects and begin operations by 2025.

Denka has partnered with Toyo to build a chemical recycling plant in Chiba, Japan which will process approximately 3,000 tons of used polystyrene to produce styrene monomers which will be used for the production of high-quality polystyrene resins.

With the new plant, BASF has replaced its existing production unit at the Ludwigshafen Verbund site in Germany which has been in operation since the past 40 plus years. The new facility has the same production capacity as the previous plant of more than 10,000 metric tons of 2-mercaptoethanol per year.

In a recent report by Vertex Hydrogen, the company has provided the details of developing the low carbon hydrogen production project in the UK. Under the project, natural gas, refinery fuel gas will be converted into low carbon hydrogen and carbon dioxide will be captured and permanently stored under the sea bed.

Origin Materials has plans to develop its second manufacturing plant, Origin 2 at Geismar, Louisiana, USA. The facility is expected to convert an estimated 1 million dry metric tons of wood residues annually in order to produce carbon-negative materials and hydrothermal carbon which will be used to manufacture PET plastic and be used in fuel pellets respectively.

Under an agreement signed between Chevron and Renewable Energy Group (REG), Chevron will acquire the outstanding shares of REG for 3.15-billion-dollars, thus taking over the company. The move will help Chevron to meet its goal of increasing its renewable fuels production capacity to 100,000 barrels per day by 2030.

A new study by Fertilizers Europe and Dechema has revealed that CO2 emissions from ammonia production in Europe could be reduced by almost a fifth in 2030. It also highlights that the adoption of blue hydrogen in the production of ammonia could lead to a reduction of 3,000 kt of CO2 emissions annually from 2030 onwards.