🏭 Water bags

Good morning. If you know anything about emollients feel free to send over your thoughts on the second story!

From the condenser:

· Dow's water sachet recycling in Africa

· Evonik's enzymatic emollient

· MOTD: allyl alcohol

Dow's recycling project in Africa

Midland-based chemical company, Dow Chemical, is expanding its flexible film recycling project in Africa.

Some context:

About two years ago, Dow announced a pilot project in Lagos, Nigeria with the goal of recycling water sachets. Used water sachets (basically plastic bags for water) are plentiful in the region because they are the most affordable way to provide the region with clean drinking water.

Breaking it down:

These water sachets are brand-less, typically made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and easy to sort from other waste. This makes them great candidates for recycling—it's a fairly pure waste stream so you can expect consistent recycled product. The point of the pilot project was to prove that the resins made from these waste sachets could be used for packaging.

Looking forward:

Dow is now bringing the same project to Egypt and Guinea with the intent of collecting and recycling about 10,000 tons over the next few years. The goal of the project isn't to solve the plastic waste issue. The goal of the project is to create jobs by establishing a market for locally-produced recycled materials while reducing waste in the process.

Evonik is investing in sustainable skin care

German specialty chemical company, Evonik, has announced plans to expand its myristyl myristate production in Shanghai, China.

What are they making?

Evonik produces myristyl myristate, aka tetradecyl tetradecanoate, via the enzymatic esterification of tetradecanoic acid and tetradecanol. They are sourcing those tetra-deca molecules from palm oil, but they are actually found at the highest levels in nutmeg (btw, nutmeg's binomial name is myristica fragrans, which explains the weird nomenclature).

What's it for?

The largest end-market for myristyl myristate is as an emollient in personal care. Emollients limit water transfer when applied to the skin, so they are commonly found in skin care formulations as a moisturizing component (they trap water in).

Zooming out:

The personal care sector sees moderate growth each year with rates between 3-5%. Evonik isn't expanding its myristyl myristate production because of that growth—they are expanding because of demand growth in sustainability. The enzymatic esterification of palm oil is more sustainable than petroleum-based emollients like propylene glycol.

Some more headlines:

• BASF is researching how to mechanically recycle mixed polyethylene and nylon waste

• SABIC partnered with UPM Raflatac to make labels from ocean bound plastic

• Michael McCoy covered some discussion on sustainability at the ACC's annual meeting

• Al Greenwood also covered the meeting if you're super interested

• Air Products is going to privde Indian Oil with hydrogen and nitrogen

Molecule of The Day:

Today's MOTD is the one you've been waiting for… allyl chloride.

First produced by a couple of chemists named August in 1857, the world now produces over 1 million tons of the molecule each year. Shell was the first company to commercialize the technology by reacting propylene and chlorine at their Deer Park, TX site sometime in 1945. Dow Chemical got to it about a decade later in Freeport, TX.

Virtually all allyl chloride is produced by the chlorination of propylene. The vast majority of the stuff is used to make ECH (which ends up epoxy resins), but allyl chloride is also a feedstock for allyl alcohol, , and synthetic mustard oil.

The allyl chloride market is partially consolidated with the main producers including (but not limited to) Solvay, Osaka Soda, an Ineos subsidiary, and Olin.

In case you're interested:

• Safety Moment: Proper documentation for chemicals within the workplace is critical—familiarize yourself with these standards for proper hazard identification from OSHA.

• Article: It’s hard to understand the petrochemical industry without knowing in's & out's of the 'enes.

• Product: Does measuring the pH of random liquids sound fun to you? If so, then try out this pH meter.*

The bottoms: