Page 157 - CW E-Magazine (13-2-2024)

News from Abroad

carbon fibre is vital to several US duction utilising this new capability prepreg producer in the US. The Decatur
Department of Defense (DoD) weapons and is in the process of qualifying the plant has operation lines from precursor
systems and the Future Vertical Lift new line with customers. “Our team in to carbon fibre and is one of three Toray
(FVL) programme. Decatur worked tirelessly to advance manufacturing facilities in the US. The
the commissioning of our upgraded car- company has other locations in Tacoma,
The commissioning was attended bon fibre production line to support the Washington, and Spartanburg, South
by a cross-section of government and strong demand from the defence indus- Carolina, producing precursor, carbon
defence sector representatives, besides try,” said Mr. Dennis Frett, President of fibre, and prepreg. Toray’s portfolio of
guests from industry and academia. Toray Composite Materials America. carbon fibre composite materials sup-
ports customers in aerospace & defence,
Toray said it has already begun pro- Toray is the largest carbon fibre and industrial, and automotive industries.

LEVERAGING SYNERGIES
BASF, Envision Energy announce e-methanol collaboration

BASF’s Process Catalysts business conversion to e-methanol, in sync with the onstream
is joining up with China’s green tech e-methanol,” time of wind power. Envision Energy
firm, Envision Energy, to enhance the said Mr. Detlef will leverage its pioneering AIoT (Arti-
efficiency of producing e-methanol Ruff, Senior Vice ficial Intelligence of Things) platforms
(methanol produced with renewable President, Pro- to optimise the novel, dynamic mode of
energy) from green hydrogen and car- cess Catalysts at chemical plant operation.
bon dioxide (CO ). BASF.
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In August 2023, Envision’s green
The collaboration will see the part- According to hydrogen project in Inner Mongolia,
ners integrate BASF’s Synspire cata- BASF, the advan- was approved. Spanning three phases,
lyst technology with Envision’s energy tages of e-metha- the project plans to establish green
management system as part of an nol extend beyond its ability to be used hydrogen, ammonia and methanol
advanced, dynamic process design. without a change in infrastructure. Due production. Full operation is expected
Viability of the design will be demon- to its inherent stability, the fuel can be in 2028.
strated next year at Envision’s Chifeng stored at room temperature and ambient
site in Inner Mongolia, China. pressure indefinitely. Additionally, the Chinese company
plans to establish a 2-GW electrolyser
“By combining our innovative Envision Energy will design a manufacturing plant in the region.
catalyst technology with Envision process package that maximises the Envision has also secured contracts
Energy’s deep expertise, we are con- efficiency of the catalyst technology to supply wind turbines to projects
fident that we can unlock the full while fully enabling the dynamic con- including NEOM’s 2.2-GW green
potential of green hydrogen and CO version of green hydrogen and CO into hydrogen production facility.
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Enerkem to retire its Edmonton biofuels facility

Biofuels and renewable chemicals hours of operation producing ethanol “With those objectives achieved
producer, Enerkem, has announced that and methanol (ISCC EU and ISCC and factoring in the current market and
it will be retiring its Enerkem Alberta PLUS certified), the plant facilitated the domestic regulatory conditions, Enerkem
Biofuels (EAB) plant in Edmonton, validation by industry players and other has made the decision to retire the EAB
Canada. third parties of Enerkem’s waste-to-bio- plant. Thanks to the learnings acquired
fuels platform. It also allowed Enerkem at EAB, Enerkem, with the support of
The company said the EAB faci- to attract global partners and investors its strategic investors, will continue to
lity has achieved its main objective of while developing a team with expertise focus on the global deployment and
completing the commercial scale-up of in design and deployment of advanced commercialisation of its technology,” the
its technology. With more than 15,000 gasification technology. company informed in a press note.

Chemical Weekly February 13, 2024 157

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