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Good morning. Based strictly on your intuition, since we don’t have a techno-economic analysis handy (you can see everyone’s selection after you vote!):

From the condenser:
· Polystyvert’s first PS dissolving plant
· Lubrizol’s CPVC expansion in India
· MOTD: phosphoric acid

Polystyvert is building their first plant

Canadian molecular recycler, Polystyvert, announced that they will be building a $40 million 9,000 ton per year polystyrene recycling site outside of Montreal.

Molecular recycling 101:
When we say molecular recycling, we’re referring to a bunch of different processes that recycle waste at a molecular level. Sometimes that means purification (using a chemical process to separate the target polymer from the rest of the waste), and sometimes that means depolymerization (using a chemical process to break down the target polymer, or polymers, into monomers). Polystyvert is a waste polystyrene purifier.

Okay, so what do they do?
Similar to the polycarbonate-dissolving process that Trinseo is piloting ($), Polystyvert’s process dissolves waste polystyrene, perhaps with something like cymene, removes the impurities and polystyrene additives, and then evaporates the solvent, leaving just pure polystyrene behind. The process competes with depolymerization approaches, like the one that Agilyx is licensing ($).

Looking forward:
Agilyx’s process is based on pyrolysis, which basically means breaking the bonds of the polymer with a lot of heat. It has its advantages: 1) there’s not much pre-processing required, and 2) the big petrochemical players are mostly ready to start processing pyrolysis oil as pseudo-naptha for their steam crackers. Dissolution processes similarly benefit from (1), but they instead sell the polymer directly to polystyrene compounders. And generally speaking, avoiding the bond breaking part of the process should make the process less energy intensive. So not only is Polystyvert able to sell their product for a higher price, they are probably making it in a more energy-efficient manner. The question that remains: can it scale to a meaningful capacity?

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Lubrizol is leaning into CPVC in India

Ohio-based (and Berkshire Hathaway owned) specialty chemicals company, Lubrizol, will break ground on its new chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) in India later this year, and now plans to double its CPVC compounding facility.

A little background:
You’re probably familiar with CPVC’s less-chlorinated cousin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC). We make CPVC from PVC by chlorinating PVC, which increases its chlorine content by about 10%, making CPVC able to withstand temperatures up to 90°F greater. We make PVC by polymerizing vinyl chloride, which we get from heating up ethylene dichloride, which is what we make when we react ethylene (from a steam cracker) with chlorine (from a chlor-alkali plant).

Okay, so what’s the deal here?
Lubrizol announced plans to build that CPVC site about two and a half years ago, but the site is a joint venture (JV) with Grasim Industries, and JVs seem to take a while to get moving (there are probably some macro reasons for the delay as well). In any case, the announcement today basically just affirms that a) they are building the plant they said they would, and b) they are now going to expand the downstream compounding facility—which was something they were obviously going to do, but the capacity hadn’t been spelled out yet. (They are going from 70,000 tons per year to 140,000 tons per year.)

Zooming out:
The demand for clean water in India is increasing rapidly, which means that the demand for pipes to transport water is also increasing rapidly. CPVC is able to handle the hot water that PVC cannot, so it’s frequently chosen for residential and commercial use. Since Lubrizol will be the only company operating a fully integrated CPVC value chain, they’ll probably capture a lot of the value they create for the region.

Some more headlines

• Zhejiang Petroleum made their first on-spec propylene oxide at their new POSM unit

• Brenntag acquired a distributor of personal care chemicals in China

• CP Chem decided on a plant manager for their upcoming Golden Triangle Polymers site

• BASF broke ground on a 500,000 ton per year polyethylene plant in Zhanjiang, China

• C&EN put out a great article on the impact of energy cost on Germany's chemical industry

Molecule of The Day

Today's MOTD is the most beautiful molecule of them all, phosphoric acid.

Independently discovered by by a couple of Swedish chemists, this molecule was first discovered as a component of bone ash in the late 18th century. Today, the world produces some 50 million tons of this stuff each year by mining ore and treating it with heat and other chemicals.

We need all of that phosphoric acid primarily because we need it to make phosphate fertilizers. Over 90% of all phosphoric acid is used to do exactly that (DAP, MAP, and TSP are the main 3). The rest of the acid ends up quite a few different places, including semiconductor manufacturing, toothpaste, and detergents.

The main companies producing all of this phosphoric acid are the same ones who mine the ore. That includes (in no particular order) The Mosaic Company, Nutrien, and even Solvay.

The reboiler

• Safety Moment: Chevron's Richmond Refinery caught fire in 2012—take a moment to learn why.

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

• Article: Tom Baxter sums up why some politicians are so enamored by hydrogen energy.

The bottoms

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