Stepan to buy surfactants producer PerformanX

RENEWABLE NEWS Stepan to buy surfactants producer PerformanX

US speciality chemicals company Stepan has agreed to acquire surfactants producer PerformanX Specialty Chemicals, the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) reported on 12 September.

Stepan said the deal was expected to close in the third quarter of this year but did not disclose the financial details.

PerformanX was a strong strategic fit for the company’s surfactants business, Stepan CEO Scott Behrens was quoted as saying, which would allow it to diversify its alkoxylation product lines.

The pending acquisition is the latest move by Stepan to increase its surfactants capacity and the company is building a new alkoxylation plant at its existing complex in Pasadena, Texas, according to the report.

Due to become operational in 2024, Stepan said the US$245M project would provide it with flexible alkoxylation capacity for both ethoxylation and propoxylation.

Stepan’s website said the company was active in the agriculture, coatings, household and industrial cleaning, and personal care sectors.

PerformanX Specialty Chemicals offers a range of products and custom formulations including ethoxylates, disinfectants, lubricant additives and a range of formulated speciality products, for sectors including cleaners and detergents, personal care, oil and gas, and paints and coatings.

Alkoxylates are a family of surfactants made by reacting fatty alcohols with ethylene oxide (EO) or propylene oxide (PO).

IN BRIEF

FINLAND: Renewable fuels producer Neste said on 19 September that it had launched a study into transitioning its Porvoo refinery into a renewable site and ending crude oil refining there in the mid-2030s.

The transition could include retrofitting existing units at a later stage, with a long-term production capacity of 2M-4M tonnes/year.

The Porvoo site currently produces both fossil and renewable products such as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and comprises four production lines and more than 40 production units.

Independently of the planned transition, Neste said it would continue supplying fossil fuel products.

BASF and RiKarbon to make bio-emollients

German chemical firm BASF has formed a partnership with US-based technology start-up RiKarbon to produce emollients derived from bio-waste.

The partnership would involve BASF licensing and commercialising RiKarbon’s proprietary technology, the two companies said on 21 September.

BASF said it planned to bring the RiKarbon technology in-house and was planning a market launch of the initial solutions in 2024.

Founded in 2018, RiKarbon processes bio-waste into renewable chemicals and ingredients, such as base oils and emollients for renewable plastics, healthcare, and speciality applications, including cosmetics and hair and skin-

Emollients are products used to soften and lubricate skin care products.

RiKarbon said its emollients were comprised of 100% bio-based carbon, with 60% sourced from agricultural waste materials. The company said its emollients could be used in personal care products as a bio-based alternative to linear silicones, petrochemical-derived hydrocarbons and esters.

GERMANY: Chemical firm BASF announced on 29 September that it had launched a new catalyst to process renewable feedstocks.

The CircleStar catalyst achieved 99.5% selectivity for ethanol-to-ethylene conversion, with an operating temperature more than 25°C lower than conventional processes, BASF said.

The catalyst’s star shape also increased the active geometrical surface area for the reaction, leading to improved mass transfer and a longer catalyst lifetime due to the lower operating temperature and pressure-drop profile.

Companies investing billions in bioplastics

Billions of dollars are being invested in bioplastics with the sector set to expand with increased use of corn, sugar, vegetable oils and other materials, AP News wrote on 9 August.

Of the 9bn tonnes of fossil fuel plastic produced since the 1950s, only 9% was recycled, with the remainder buried in landfills, burned or polluting land and waterways, the report said.

Bioplastics currently represented 1% of global plastic production, but companies and investors were now seeing opportunities in the sector.

Investment in bioplastic manufacturing reached US$500M in the first three months of this year, according to data from i3 Connect, exceeding the previous high of US$350M in the last quarter of 2021.

Zion Market Research has estimated that the bioplastics market would surge from US$10.5bn in 2021 to around US$29bn in 2028.

US company Danimer Scientific, which makes a bioplastic called PHA or polyhydroxyalkanoate using microorganisms that ferment with canola oil, had recently expanded its plant in Winchester, Kentucky, the report said.

The other primary bioplastic was PLA, or polylactic acid, widely produced by fermenting sugar from corn and sugarcane, AP News wrote.

NatureWorks, a joint venture between global agribusiness giant Cargill and Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical, was producing 150,000 tonnes/year of bioplastic pellets at its plant in Blair, Nebraska. It was also building a US$600M plant in Thailand to increase its production capacity by 50%.

PLA, unlike PHA, did not easily biodegrade in nature and NatureWorks had formed a partnership with PHA manufacturer CJ Bio to produce a bioplastic that could more easily biodegrade, AP News added.

RENEWABLE NEWS

Venture to produce non-ionic surfactants

German chemical giant BASF is forming a joint venture with South Korean chemical company Hannong Chemicals to produce non-ionic surfactants in Asia Pacific.

BASF said on 6 October that it would own 51% of the BASF Hannong Chemicals Solutions joint venture while Hannong would hold the remaining stake.

Located in the Daejuk site at the Daesan Industrial Complex in Korea, the joint venture would combine BASF’s technology and product capabilities with Hannong’s production of non-ionic surfactant products. Expected to become operational in the first half of next year, the joint venture would involve both companies maintaining their own sales and distribution networks.

Used in a wide range of industry sectors – including home care, personal care, industrial and institutional cleaning applications, as well as industrial formulations – non-ionic surfactants are used in formulations for laundry detergents, surface cleaners and dishwasher detergents, leather and textile treatment, metal surface cleaning and other applications.

Surfactants help lower the surface tension between a liquid and another liquid, gas or solid. They are a key ingredient in cleaning products and have a water-loving head (hydrophilic) and water-hating (hydrophobic) tail. The hydrophobic tails are attracted to dirt while the hydrophilic heads help to wet things more uniformly. The hydrophilic head of each surfactant is electrically charged (negative, positive or neutral), and a surfactant is classified as anionic, non-ionic, cationic or amphoteric, depending on the charge.

Non-ionic surfactants have a neutral charge and are very good at emulsifying oils.

Crop Energies buys Syclus to make ethylene

German ethanol producer Crop Energies has acquired a 50% stake in Dutch bio-chemicals start-up Syclus, the companies announced on 7 September.

The aim of the US$1.75M acquisition was to build an industrial-scale plant to produce renewable ethylene from ethanol.

Syclus said it planned to build and operate a production facility at the Chemelot industrial park in Geleen, the Netherlands.

While the plant was under development, the company said it would study the technical and economic viability of producing renewable ethylene.

If the analysis was positive, basic engineering work would start late next year, with production at the 100,000 tonnes/year plant expected to begin in 2026. This would require an investment of US$82.8MUS$974.3M.

Applications for ethylene-based plastics and polymers include packaging, building materials, automotive applications, paints, adhesives, fibres, clothing and other everyday products.

To date, Crop Energies said it had mainly produced ethanol as a domestic fuel substitute as well as for food and animal feed products, but the focus in the future would be on the de-fossilisation of other sectors.

In recent years, European demand for ethylene has been approximately 20M tonnes/year, the firms said.