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From the condenser:

· CP Chem and QatarEnergy's $8.5B site

· Neste's cooking oil acquisition

· POTD: orthopedic casts

CP Chem and QatarEnergy’s new big plant

American petrochemical company, Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem), and Qatar's very own QatarEnergy made their final investment decision (FID) to build an $8.5 billion integrated petrochemical complex in Orange, Texas.

Bringing you up to speed:

This project was first announced in July 2019, with initial targets for start-up being sometime in 2024. The companies planned to make their FID in early 2021, but postponed that commitment because of all the COVID-19-related-uncertainty. It will be the largest complex to pop up on the Gulf Coast since Exxon's site started up in January, and the biggest in the US since last Friday ($). It's also basically a replica of what CP Chem and QatarEnergy are building in Qatar.

The details:

CP Chem and QatarEnergy are forming a 51:49 joint venture, called Golden Triangle Polymers (anyone know what cities are in the golden triangle?), and building a 2.3 million ton per year ethane cracker and two 1.1 million ton per year high-density polyethylene (HDPE) units. The HDPE units will use CP Chem's technology, CP Chem will find someone to handle the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), and CP Chem will operate the site when it starts up. Most of what the site produces will be exported to the Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America regions.

Bigger picture:

Projects like this one would have been unthinkable in the early 2000s, but as the US shale revolution kicked into gear, enormous petrochemical plants started popping up along the Gulf Coast. And while demand for chemicals steps in tiny increments, the supply of chemicals steps in huge increments (because scale is king). The problem with this lag is that we eventually overdo it and end up with too much supply—decreasing margins and eventually bringing new investment to a halt—until someone changes their mind and build again.

Neste bought another used cooking oil collector

Finnish refiner, Neste, has acquired a US-based used cooking oil collector and processor to supply its upcoming joint renewable refinery with Marathon Petroleum.

Catching you up:

At the moment, Neste doesn't have any production sites in the US—but they started hinting at it back in March 2020 when they bought their first US-based used cooking oil company. Then, just a year and a half later, they did basically the same thing. And while Neste was busy dropping hooks in the supply chain, Marathon was looking to revitalize its Martinez refinery which was shut down during the peak of the pandemic. The stars aligned this spring when Neste agreed to acquire half of that refinery, effectively financing its conversion into a renewable refinery.

Wait, why used cooking oil?

Most renewable refineries out there refine vegetable oils (often from soybeans in the US) to make products that resemble traditional refinery products (fuels and naphtha). This is done by hydrogenating the oils and then refining the product. Neste notoriously does the same thing, but with animal fats and used cooking oils instead of vegetable oils. Hence all of Neste's used cooking oil acquisitions.

Bigger picture:

The main driver for all of this renewable refinery stuff is the increasing demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). That's because while we're on the cusp of electrifying cars, we're not on the cusp of electrifying planes, so SAF is looking like the only way the aviation industry can "decarbonize"—and whether airlines prefer to "decarbonize" via soybeans or via used cooking oil will boil down to how badly they want to hit those 2030 emissions goals (the LCA for used cooking oils is preferable, but the SAF is identical).

Some more headlines

• Lummus’ Novolen launched a new grade of polypropylene

• S-OIL is going to build a crude to chemicals cracker in South Korea

• LyondellBasell might make more propylene at its Channelview site

• BASF still sees some opportunities for growth in China

• Check out this list of state-level recycling legislation to watch

Product of The Day

Today, we're breaking down orthopedic casts.

If you haven't had one of these then you've at least signed one, but either way, understanding what they are made of probably hasn't been your top priority. Since they are flexible when they are wrapped and harden when soaked in water, you'd be right to imagine that there's some sort of thermoset resin action going on here.

The material casts are made of is a knitted fiber soaked with a polyisocyanate prepolymer. The fiber is typically fiberglass (long strands of glass surrounded by a polymer) or a polyester like PET. The polyisocyanate prepolymer is a usually a polyether polyol (like this polypropylene glycolfrom Covestro) with MDI end caps. When this stuff hits water it cures (forms crosslinks) and become the rigid polyurethane that protects your (or someone else's) healing bones.

The reboiler

• Book: How can you expect to understand the chemical industry without knowing its history? Start with Fred Aftalion's introduction.*

• Article: This is a good read if you want a quick introduction on how to gauge the profitability of a refinery.

• Podcast: Check out this episode on Dr. Greg Newbloom's career, company, and interest in green chemistry.

The bottoms

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