Page 153 - CW E-Magazine (13-2-2024)

News from Abroad

plants with capacities of 400-ktpa each, The original decision resulted the ruling. In 2020, the Corps of
and a 900-ktpa ethylene glycol (EG) from a lawsuit brought against LDEQ Engineers suspended another key permit
unit. The second phase, originally tar- by environmental groups RISE St. after it was challenged in court by
geted for start-up by 2029, includes a James, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, the Center for Biological Diversity,
second 1.2-mtpa steam cracker, LL- Sierra Club, Center for Biological announcing that it would conduct a
DPE and HDPE plants with capacities Diversity, Healthy Gulf, Earthworks full environmental impact statement
of 400-ktpa each, and a second 900- and No Waste Louisiana. The groups before deciding whether to reinstate
ktpa EG unit. resolved to block the project despite the permit.

REDUCING EMISSIONS
Shell to repurpose German hydrocracker for base

oil production

British oil & gas giant, Shell, has said scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions (those
that its German arm – Shell Deutschland which come directly from its operations
GmbH – has taken a final investment de- and those from the energy it buys to run
cision (FID) to convert its hydrocracker operations) by around 0.62-mtpa. Shell’s
at the Wesseling site in the Energy and target is to become a net-zero emissions
Chemicals Park Rheinland into a pro- energy business by 2050.
duction unit for Group III base oils, used
in making high-quality lubricants such The new base oil plant is expected
as engine and transmission oils. to start operations in the second half of
this decade. It will have a production
Shell’s Energy and Chemicals Park capacity of around 300-ktpa , equiva-
Rheinland is located near Cologne and stream and Renewables Director, said, lent to about 9% of current EU demand
is comprised of two sites – Wesseling “The repurposing of this European refi- and 40% of Germany’s demand for
and Godorf. It currently has capacity nery is a significant step towards serving base oils.
to process over 17-mtpa of crude oil, our growing lubricant customer base with
of which 7.5-mtpa are processed at the premium base oils. This investment is Group III base oils are mineral
Wesseling site. part of Shell’s drive to create more value base oils with very high viscosity in-
with less emissions.” dex, produced by hydrocracking. The
Shell said crude oil processing will market for high-quality engine and
end at the Wesseling site by 2025, but The high degree of electrification of transmission oils, as well as e-fluids
will continue at the Godorf site. the base oil plant, as well as the ceasing of and cooling fluids, some of which are
crude oil processing into fuels at the Wes- made from these base oils, is expected
Mr. Huibert Vigeveno, Shell’s Down- seling site, is expected to reduce Shell’s to grow.

ECHA launches new chemicals database

The European Chemicals Agency dustry-submitted data with information with the redesigned Classification and
(ECHA), the EU regulatory body be- generated in the EU’s regulatory pro- Labelling Inventory, followed by the
hind the implementation of the REACH cesses. ‘ECHA CHEM’ seeks to share first set of regulatory lists. Mr. Mercedes
(Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation with the public the growing amount of Viñas, ECHA’s Director of Submissions
and Restriction of Chemicals) regu- information hosted by the Agency. and Interaction said, “ECHA CHEM is
lation, has launched ‘ECHA CHEM’ – a significant step forward in enhancing
a new solution for publishing infor- The first version of ‘ECHA CHEM’ our service for sharing data on chemi-
mation on chemicals. will have information from the over cals gathered through ECHA’s current
100,000 REACH registrations that activities. It makes the information
ECHA maintains the largest chemi- companies have submitted to ECHA. Later available online within a stable system
cals database in the EU, combining in- this year, the database will be expanded and in a user-friendly manner.”

Chemical Weekly February 13, 2024 153

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