Bioplastics are emerging as viable alternatives to petroleum-based polymers. This quiet revolution goes well beyond the standard drivers for sustainably sourced and/or compostable materials. I attended the 2013 BioPlastek conference in San ...
Tags: Bioplastic Revolution
US spot styrene dropped 1 cent/lb ($22/mt) from Friday to be assessed at 73 cents/lb ($1,609/mt) FOB US Gulf Coast Monday, tracking lower European spot styrene as well as lower feedstock benzene. The assessment was at its lowest level ...
Tags: spot styrene, Chemicals
Novomer Inc., a sustainable materials company pioneering a family of high-performance polymers and other chemicals from renewable feedstocks such as carbon dioxide (CO2), recently announced a major new application of its catalytic ...
Tags: Coatings Market, Paint
China's fuel oil imports in August fell to a near five-year low of 1.17 million mt amid continued weak demand from both the bunker market and independent teapot refiners, according to data released late Monday by the General Administration ...
Narrowing propane price spreads between the US and international markets are poised to shrink further as terminal developers, such as Enterprise Products Partners, advance plans to increase the nation's liquefied petroleum gas export ...
Rosneft and ExxonMobil selected CB&I UK and Foster Wheeler Energy as contractors for initial phase front end engineering and design (FEED) for a proposed Russian Far East liquefied natural gas project. Rosneft and ExxonMobil intend to ...
Tags: ExxonMobil, LNG Project
Carlsbad, Calif.-based Verdezyne, a developer of renewable nylon fiber and biobased chemicals, has been granted BioNexus status by Malaysian Biotechnology Corp. (BiotechCorp), Malaysia's primary biobased industry development agency. ...
Tags: Textile, nylon fiber
The slide in LPG prices over the past four days on abundant supply and an Asian demand pause has sent physical values to six-week lows and flipped the paper market to the steepest contango structure since early July 2012, market sources ...
Tags: Metallurgy, Mineral, Energy
South Korea imported 16,769 mt of ethanol in August, up 34% from July, and up 5.6% on the same month a year ago, according to customs data released Friday. The biggest increase was seen in imports of undenatured ethanol, which surged 259% ...
Sales of the equipment and consumables to control air pollution in the US will rise at seven percent per year over the next four years to reach just under US$9 billion in 2017. This is the latest forecast in Air Pollution Management ...
Tags: Air Pollution
The Asian naphtha market may firm going into the last two months of this year on curtailed arbitrage flows which will likely tighten supply balances and year-end demand mopping up excess naphtha supply from the higher arbitrage arrivals in ...
Tags: Chemicals, Metallurgy, Mineral, Energy
US toluene disproportionation margins have moved into negative territory after toluene spot prices moved higher against declining benzene and mixed xylene spot pricing. Mobil selective toluene disproportionation margins were also ...
Tags: Spot Toluene, Chemicals
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Florida-based Chemergy Inc plan to demonstrate a bioenergy technology that converts wastewater treatment plant byproducts into hydrogen gas to produce electricity. The ...
Propane remains the preferred feedstock for petrochemical users in Northwest Europe, due to lower prices compared with butane, sources said this week. "We are buying propane -- it makes sense right now," said a trader. Large propane ...
China's domestic isomer-grade mixed xylenes prices have strengthened partly due to the startup of Dragon Aromatics' new 800,000 mt/year paraxylene plant in Fujian province late August, market sources said Thursday. "Hikes in domestic ...