Chemicals Industry

Polyethylene (PE)

SABIC Americas evaluates potential petrochemical facility in the Motiva Port Arthur Refinery Complex in Texas; site would include capacity for 400,000 tonnes/year each of PP and HDPE
PetroChemical News (08/22)

Veolia, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Dobbies Garden Centres launch recycling scheme for plastic compost bags; Dobbies to collect 100 million LDPE bags/year across 81 stores, Veolia to recycle bags into new products such as garden furniture, plastic films, new bags
Veolia Environnement SA (08/19)

Polypropylene (PP)

La Trobe University research demonstrates potential of recycled PP as a component in composites with cellulosic materials; recycled material shows similar property to virgin polymer, shows potential in structural materials
Ecology Daily News (08/22)

The Week in Chemistry: US PE, PP spot prices hold steady for week of Aug. 8, European PE, PP, PVC face bearish near-term outlook amid consumer economic fears; rising supply of butadiene from China sends prices downward to US$1,000/tonne on Aug. 12
Industry Intelligence Inc. (08/19)

Polyesters/Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)

Hassan II University of Casablanca researchers develop feather-waste nonwoven-reinforced polyester composite as a low-cost, sustainable, lightweight material; biocomposite's biodegradability rates ranged from 62%-92% depending on sample nature: study
Transportation Daily News (08/22)

Polycarbonate (PC)

Covestro to launch mechanical recycling line for PC polymers at integrated site in Shanghai, with capacity for 60,000 tons/year of recycled PC; PCR material will be used primarily for compounding in automotive, consumer goods, electronic applications
Covestro LLC (08/19)

Propylene

Borealis terminates contracts with IREM for propane dehydrogenation site in Kallo, Belgium, in light of allegations of misconduct by IREM; only minor portion of work will resume, as IREM was responsible for 80% of work
Borealis AG (08/19)

Polymers/Resins

Zapsibneftekhim, an affiliate of Sibur, produces first batch of HD 02604 LS black PE grade; production site is expected to have capacity of 40,000 tonnes/year
ITAR-TASS (08/19)

Indian government grants startup loan of 11,500,000 rupees to TGP Bioplastics to commercialize a compostable plastic that could offer alternative to single-use plastics; officials aim to help address ongoing plastic pollution problems
Bureaucracy Today (08/19)

Polymethyl Methacrylate (Acrylic/PMMA)

Fiberglass mat manufacturer Saint-Gobain ADFORS orders ProJet Power Cleaner for Litomysl, Czech Republic, facility, to be delivered later in 2022; cleaner to remove acrylic binder, fibers on saturator belt line, provide optimum drying performance for belt
Projet B.V. (08/22)

Styrene

European styrene contracts in July sink 22% month-on-month to €509/tonne; feedstock benzene dropped 37% month-on-month to €1,117/tonne in August: ICIS
ICIS Chemical Business (CBNB Abstracts) (08/19)

US styrene contracts for August sink more than 21% month-on-month to US$0.74/lb, owing to lower cash expenses and falling spot prices; some facilities resumed production in June 2022 after maintenance, adding to availability: ICIS
ICIS Chemical Business (CBNB Abstracts) (08/19)

Coatings

Southwest University scientists develop antimicrobial nonwoven fabrics for filters, face masks coated with common food industry compounds; levulinic acid, sodium dodecyl sulfate coatings are low-cost, safe, show activity against bacteria, H1N1 flu virus
Chemicals & Chemistry Daily (08/19)

Sealants

NOK-Freudenberg--a JV of Freudenberg and Japan-based oil seal manufacturer NOK--applies to nominate electrically conductive nonwoven for Chinese automotive industry's Gasgoo Awards; sealing nonwoven grounding component protects e-motor shaft from erosion
Gasgoo (08/22)

Global market for construction sealants projected to reach US$13.8B by 2028 from US$8.6B in 2021; growth drivers include rising demand for green building, encouraged by increasing disposable income, environmental concerns
ReleaseWire (08/19)

Films/Sheets

UK startup Orange Packaging specializes in reusable and recyclable packaging options, tailored to meet unique needs of businesses; up to 250% pre-stretching can be done in pallet stretch films, offering an economical packaging solution, official says
M2 PressWIRE (08/22)

Biodegradable films market expected to cross US$1.78B by 2028, with a CAGR of 7.1% during 2022–2028; key players include BASF, Avery Dennison
ReleaseWire (08/19)

Plastics

KP Snacks to cut plastic packaging by 25% across its Tyrrells range; the new packaging will save 113 tonnes of plastic/year, will include a flash featuring the message, ‘We’re taking action with 25% less packaging’
Convenience Store (08/22)

Plastic recycling patents hit record high, up eight-fold to 2,149 since 2016, with China leading at 1,970 patents in 2021 alone; industry currently competing to be first to make clear recycled plastic, a potentially £100.00B market: Mathys & Squire
Mathys & Squire LLP (08/22)

Plastic Packaging

China's 2018 National Sword policy restricting plastic, paper waste imports only partially led to US recycling investment increase; companies previously planned expansions with rise of e-commerce, especially for containerboard: Northeast Recycling Council
Waste Dive (08/22)

Environmental advocacy group has been pushing for a proposal to put a US$0.10 fee on single-use plastic bags in Durham County, North Carolina; environmentalists say policies limiting single-use plastics are necessary to curb state's microplastics problem
Independent Tribune (08/22)

Cosmetic & Personal Care Ingredients

Westman Atelier releases Vital Skincare Complexion Drops, new skin tint hybrids available in 16 shades, with four new hues to be added in December; serum-like tints feature Tsubaki oil and pomegranate extract, offer hydration and light to medium coverage
Hypebae (08/19)

Singer Becky G's Tresluce Beauty expands into brow products with two launches; Dual-Ended Micro Brow Pencil comes in six long-lasting and waterproof natural shades, while the Clear Brow Gel boasts conditioning properties with vitamin E and Marney seed oil
Hypebae (08/19)

Food & Beverage Ingredients/Additives

Nutramax Laboratories sues Zesty Paws for allegedly false advertising regarding ingredients, quality, third-party rankings and market performance of their products; company claims testing shows E. Coli contamination and undetectable active ingredients
News Direct (08/22)

IFF opens new Nourish Innovation Lab at company's research center in Union Beach, New Jersey; new flavor and food design lab offers customers full portfolio of ingredients
International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF) (08/19)

Flavors, Fragrances & Scents

Singer Ariana Grande expands her fragrance portfolio into new product category with launch of God is a Woman Body Line, exclusively with Ulta Beauty; clean, scented products include body scrub, body oil, hand and body cream, deluxe travel spray
PR Newswire (08/22)

Unilever's Lynx brand will launch A.I. Body Spray made with Firmenich; deodorant developed with AI using 46 terabytes of data, 6,000 ingredients and 3.5 million potential fragrance combinations, designed to tap into Gen Z fascination with tech and crypto
Grocer (08/19)

Silicon, Silicone & Silicate

Meyer Burger signs agreement to purchase silicon wafers from Norwegian Crystals for use in solar cell and solar module production; wafers incorporate polysilicon of European and US origin
Meyer Burger (08/22)

Major US legislation in support of solar power component manufacturing will support restart of REC Silicon's solar-grade polysilicon site in Moses Lake, Washington, CEO says; company is negotiating sale of output to solar panel maker Hanwha Solutions
Columbia Basin Herald (08/22)

Nonwoven

PFNonwovens orders its eighth ProJet Power Cleaner system for Znojmo, Czech Republic, spunbond, meltblown facility; continuous belt cleaning system reduces nonwovens' web contamination, increases production efficiency of company's face mask materials
Projet B.V. (08/22)

Yazd University researchers determine linear Jeffery's II model can predict compression, recovery behavior of needle-punched nonwoven textiles before being commercially produced; model has high accuracy for dynamic loading of needle-punched textiles
Middle East Daily (08/22)

Fabrics/Textiles

EcoEnclose launches ReEnclose Mailer, a reusable shipping solution; ReEnclose Mailers are made with 100% recycled fabric, available in various sizes, thicknesses, and colors, and can be sent back to EcoEnclose for recycling when they are no longer usable
EINPresswire.com (08/19)

Henan University researchers develop silk nonwoven fabric modified with conductive carbon nanotubes for use as wearable strain sensor system, electronic skin; flexible sensor can detect real-time motion, strain as low as 0.05%, 'ultra-low' 10 Pa pressure
Nanotech Daily (08/19)

Latest: Aug, 22 2022