🏭 The Column: August 29, 2025

Good morning. Today I’m reverting to an older format of The Column in which I cover a few stories very lightly. Let me know what you think!

Arkema’s new HFO plant

After 4 years of construction and commissioning, Arkema has officially transitioned its Calvert City, Kentucky hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) plant into a 15 KTA hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) plant. This is a sort of a big deal—HFOs are basically 4th generation refrigerants (think air conditioners) and blowing agents (think sprayable insulation foam). Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were the worst for the ozone layer, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) were marginally better, then came HFCs, and now HFOs (which are highly reactive in the troposphere because of their double-bonded backbone, which prevents them from reaching ozone in the stratosphere). It’s also only one of two HFO plants in the US! [LINK]

Selling germanium to Lockhead Martin

Right now China is responsible for ~70% of the world’s germanium production (most of the rest is in Canada and Belgium), which is a concern for Lockhead Martin, who needs germanium optical blanks, polished lenses, and IR detector wafers from their tier-1 suppliers for the thermal imagers, night-vision, and targeting systems used in Lockhead’s portfolio of aircraft and missiles. So, as the march towards a “China-free” critical minerals supply chain for the US continues, Korea Zinc has signed an agreement (it’s just an MOU) with Lockhead to ensure that all of Lockhead’s tier-1 suppliers can get their hands on the germanium they need. [LINK]

Mura to recycle plastic in Singapore

When it comes to the molecular recycling of plastic waste, we mostly talk about polymer-generic pyrolysis or some polymer-specific depolymerization (like methanolysis for PET). Mura’s process sits closer to polymer-generic pyrolysis, but it has a twist: instead of applying heat externally to a reactor filled with plastic (via steam jackets), they plan to apply that heat internally (via supercritical steam). Rumor has it that internal heat scales well (case in point: giant steam cracker complexes), which is why I believe Dow Chemical wanted to partner with Mura a few years ago. The two companies were planning on building a 120 KTA plant at Dow’s site in Germany, but now Dow is shutting down that site, so that partnership is currently in limbo. Regardless, it seems that Mura has enough interest from other folks to keep the party going—they just announced plans to build a new site in Singapore. [LINK]

Other Things Happened:

Covestro has officially acquired a Swiss multilayer adhesive films company. Sibur produced its first test batch of hexene at its plant in Nizhnekamsk. Ketjen introduced an iron-tolerant catalyst for FCC units. Poet acquired an ethanol plant from Green Plains located in northwestern Tennessee. ABB will handle the automations at Citroniq’s new bio-based polypropylene plant. Evonik completed the construction of its 100 KTA alkoxides plant in Singapore. Vietnam might switch to ethanol-blended gasoline, opening the door to more US imports. ExxonMobil is now producing Group III base oils at its Baytown facility. A new PET recycling plant was just built in Florida. CB&I won the contract to supply Lithium Nevada with 36 tanks for their Thacker Pass lithium site. Asahi Kasei is expanding its production of photosensitive polyimides in Japan. Kao completed construction of a 20 KTA tertiary amine plant in Pasadena, Texas.