Turning Steel Mill Emissions into Useful Chemicals and Plastics - Nouryon & Tata Steel

Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals), Tata Steel and the Port of Amsterdam have joined together to study the feasibility of a large green hydrogen cluster in the Amsterdam region. The three parties consider green hydrogen as vital for reaching climate targets and building a more circular economy, for example by combining it with emissions from steel manufacture to make new products.

Studying the Feasibility of Green Hydrogen Cluster

 

 As a first step, the parties will study the feasibility of a 100 megawatt water electrolysis facility to produce up to 15,000 tons of hydrogen per year as well as oxygen at Tata Steel’s IJmuiden site, near Amsterdam. By using renewable electricity, the initial unit will enable a carbon saving of up to 350,000 tons of CO₂ per year, equivalent to the emissions of more than 40,000 households. A final investment decision is expected in 2021. The partner companies have the ambition to further scale up the technology.

Nouryon will operate the facility, while Tata Steel will use the oxygen to further enhance the sustainability of its production processes. The parties will jointly explore different routes to use hydrogen for turning steel mill emissions into useful chemicals and products. The Port of Amsterdam will focus on the infrastructure for further distribution of green hydrogen, which will be the basis for the development of new industries and zero-emission transport in the Amsterdam area.

 Sustainable Chemical Industry

“This partnership builds on our existing initiatives to support the development of a sustainable chemical industry,” said Knut Schwalenberg, Managing Director Industrial Chemicals at Nouryon. “Green hydrogen is a realistic alternative for fossil-based raw materials and enables new forms of green chemistry, such as using steel mill gas, CO₂, or waste to make plastics and move to new, circular value chains,” he said.

“Tata Steel is a strong supporter of hydrogen as a facilitator of the energy transition,” said Hans Fischer, CEO of Tata Steel Europe. “This project could be a stepping stone to make large quantities of affordable hydrogen available in the future to enable us to become a CO₂ neutral steel producer.”

Climate Neutral Circular Industry

Koen Overtoom, CEO Port of Amsterdam, added: “Large-scale production of green hydrogen, fueled by offshore wind, will enable the Amsterdam-North Sea canal region to make a leap forward towards a climate neutral circular industry. It will support our ambition towards synthetic fuels and synthetic kerosene and emission-free mobility.”

CO₂ Reduction Target of 49% by 2030

The recently presented Dutch Climate Law sets an ambitious CO₂ reduction target of 49% by 2030 compared to 1990. The parties believe that green hydrogen can make a significant contribution towards this target and aim to reach sufficient scale to absorb all emissions from Tata Steel’s plant in IJmuiden and use it for the production of new materials. The development of the green hydrogen cluster will also enable emissions-free buses and heavy transport in the entire Amsterdam area.

Source: Nouryon

Hexagon Composites to Supply Compressed Hydrogen Tanks for FCEV Serial Production

Hexagon Composites will supply compressed hydrogen tanks for serial production of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) to be launched by an automotive OEM.

Supporting Anticipated Production Activities

Hexagon is currently developing the tanks to support anticipated production activities as early as the 2020 timeframe. Production is planned to run for at least five years. Hexagon estimates the combined value for development and serial production to be in the range of USD 50 to 70 million (approximately NOK 0.4 billion to 0.6 billion).

Rick Rashilla, Senior Vice President of Hexagon Composites' Hydrogen Automotive business, said:
"This is a major contract for Hexagon and for the growing FCEV industry. Hexagon Composites is committed to investing resources into the success of this project and for the adoption of Hydrogen in combination with fuel-cell technology as a low-carbon alternative fuel for mobility applications. This selection further confirms our leading position as a light duty hydrogen tank developer for the FCEV industry."

 

 

 

 

Third Automotive OEM Contract

Jack Schimenti, Executive Vice President of Hexagon Composites, said:
"We are pleased to secure yet another major contract from a leading OEM and maintaining market leadership based on our integrity, attention to safety and delivering to customer specifications. By receiving our third serial production commitment, it cements the value proposition and long-term potential we see in the hydrogen space."

Hydrogen is a clean and safe energy carrier that can be used as fuel for power in a wide range of applications, and can be easily stored on a large scale. The life cycling properties of all-composite pressure cylinders, with plastic liners and carbon fiber structure, make them more suitable for storage of hydrogen than metal lined alternatives.

Source: Hexagon Composites

China's Haiyuan to build a carbon fiber base for ultra-light NEVs in Zhejiang

Chinese company Haiyuan New Material Technology will build a carbon fiber production base in eastern Zhejiang province to develop ultra-light materials for new energy vehicles.Chinese company Haiyuan New Material Technology will build a carbon fiber production base in eastern Zhejiang province to develop ultra-light materials for new energy vehicles.

Regarding the new plant, Haiyuan signed a framework agreement with Zhejiang Sea Port, an investment firm set up by Zhejiang province's government, Shenzhen-listed Fujianese chemical firm's parent Haiyuan Composites Technology said in a statement to its stockholders. The company said that Haiyuan has designed a production line for ultra-light car bodies while securing intellectual property rights.
The investment firm will also establish a car industry fund for new material development, to which Haiyuan will invest in. The fund will have an initial investment of CNY2 billion (USD290 million) and later it will acquire a stake in the vehicle parts firm.
Both parties will promote the use of carbon fiber materials in cars to expand from Zhejiang to the whole country, while helping Haiyuan to become the leader in the sector, the statement added.

 

 

More information: 

www.haiyuan-group.com

Cost-effective Way to Turn Food Waste into PHAs - U of T Scarborough

At U of T Scarborough, researchers have found a way to produce high quality PHAs using food waste in a cost-effective way – while also mitigating the effects of plastic pollution. PHAs have many benefits over other forms of bio-plastics.

Three-step Process to Produce PHAs

Developing materials from food waste

Process

• Genecis uses a three-step process to produce its PHAs, explains Michael Williamson, the company’s head of mechanical engineering and U of T engineering grad.
• First, they use a mixture of anaerobic (without oxygen) bacteria that breaks down the food waste into volatile fatty acids, similar to how food is broken down in our stomachs. 
• Next, the fatty acids are added to a mixed culture of aerobic (with oxygen) bacteria that are specially selected to produce PHAs in their cells.
• Finally, they use an extraction process to break open the cells, collect and purify the plastic.

It’s no wonder that passion led Yu to team up with a talented group of scientists and engineers — many of whom are U of T students or alum — to form Genecis. The company uses recent advancements in biotechnology, microbial engineering and machine learning to take food destined for landfill and convert it into high quality, fully biodegradable plastics.

“More than $1 trillion worth of food is wasted globally every year. What we’re able to do is take this waste and turn it into something of higher value.”

Food Waste - Significant Environmental Issue

Food waste is a significant environmental issue in North America, explains Yu. In the United States roughly 55 million tons of food is thrown away annually. Once that food hits landfill it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In fact, it’s estimated that 34 per cent of methane emissions in the U.S. alone are caused by food waste.

“We feel that by using synthetic biology create high quality products out of this organic waste in a cost-effective way – while also mitigating the effects of plastic pollution – is really the way of the future,” she says.

Though only in her early 20s, this isn’t Yu’s first foray into entrepreneurship. She has more than six years’ experience, first at a start-up software company as an undergrad before moving to another start-up that converted restaurant food waste into biogas.

It was there that she met several talented engineers, learned about the microbiology of converting discarded food into other materials, and discovered a valuable lesson in the economics of re-using food waste.

“Converting food waste into biogas is not only a time-consuming process, the end product is fairly low value,” she says.

It was shortly after this experience that she connected with a fellow environmental science student in The Hub, U of T Scarborough’s entrepreneurial incubator, to figure out what else could be made from food waste.

“We looked at different types of bio-rubbers and bio-chemicals before landing on PHAs. We felt it had the biggest market potential.”

A Reusable, Biodegradable Form of Plastic

PHAs, or polyhydroxyalkanoates, are a type of polymer produced in nature by bacteria that have many benefits over other forms of bio-plastics. For one, it can be a thermoplastic, meaning it can be easily molded and remolded into different products. Another benefit is that, unlike many other forms of bio-plastics, it won’t ruin the recycling process.

“Many people throw bio-plastics into the recycling bin rather than the compost, but if it’s not a thermoplastic, it can’t be remolded,” says Yu.

“This disrupts the physical properties of new recycled products — they will end up falling apart.”

PHAs won’t cause this problem if it accidentally ends up in recycling bins, which makes it much easier for waste management companies to handle.

But what really sold Yu on PHAs is the fact that it’s fully biodegradable. PHAs degrade within one year in a terrestrial environment, and fewer than 10 years in marine environments. Meanwhile, synthetic plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade in similar environments.

Given its superior physical properties and the process it takes to create, Yu says Genecis’s PHAs are best suited for higher-end products like toys, flexible packaging, 3D-printing filament and medical applications including surgical staples, sutures and stints.

 “The PHAs we create can be used to make pretty much anything, but it makes the most economic sense to use it in higher-quality, multi-use products,” she says.
While PHAs have been in the market for the past two decades, most come directly from corn and sugarcane crops. Yu explains that the process Genecis uses to create its PHAs is much cheaper because they avoid the expenses required to acquire their feedstock.
The process takes less than seven days from getting the food waste to having the purified plastic — making biogas, on the other hand, takes an average of 21 days. When the company opens its demonstration plant later next year, it will be able to convert three tons of organic waste into PHAs weekly.
While the process used by Genecis works for pretty much all types of food, some foods like simple carbs and proteins can be more efficiently converted, says Yu.
The company currently has two locations — their main lab in U of T’s Banting and Best Building, in the heart of Toronto’s Discovery District, and the other in the Environmental Science and Chemistry Building at U of T Scarborough, which is responsible for research and development.

U of T Start-up

In their downtown lab they work with pilot-scale bioreactors, and are continuing to scale up their operations with an industry partner to a demonstration plant by the end of next year. Meanwhile, their facility at UTSC houses smaller bioreactors that are used to help optimize their production process.

“We’re fine-tuning things to figure out the best conditions to operate our bacteria cultures,” says Vani Sankar, Genecis’s head of biotechnology and a postdoc at U of T Scarborough. “This includes what combinations of temperature, pH and amount of food will give us the best yield.”

In less than two years of operation, Genecis has already won more than $330,000 in prize money from start-up competitions. Yu says the support, guidance and mentorship they’ve received from the Hub, the Creative Destruction Lab, and the Hatchery, a start-up accelerator at U of T Engineering, has also been instrumental in their growth.

“I can’t say enough about the support I received from the Hub. It’s a great place to go for any students interested in starting their own company. I formed great partnerships with other students there and the mentorship I received was second to none,” Yu says. As Genecis aims to ramp up production, Yu says this support and the lessons learned from her work in other start-ups will be invaluable.

“Our goal is to create the highest value from organic waste,” says Yu, adding they’ve cultured and isolated hundreds of species of bacteria that currently don’t exist in databases.

“Soon we will be able to synthesize specialty chemicals and other materials from organic waste, all at a lower cost than traditional production methods using synthetic biology,” she says.

Those specialty chemicals can be used in a range of products including those found in cosmetics and the health and wellness industry, says Yu. “It’s a really exciting time for us.”

Source: U of T Scarborough

Braskem Presented Latest Biobased Resins and Recycling Projects at Tokyo Pack

To showcase its products developed using renewable raw materials and to strengthen its presence in the Japanese market, Braskem participated in Tokyo Pack. Braskem is the largest thermoplastic resin producer in the Americas, with annual production volume of over 20 million tons, which includes chemical products and basic petrochemicals.

World's First Biobased Polyethylene

 In its debut at the event, the company welcomed visitors to its booth displaying products such as I'm green™ plastic, which is the world's first biobased polyethylene produced on an industrial scale, and I'm green™ EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate), which also is made from sugarcane.

"Asia has become an important market for us, especially in businesses involving Green PE, and Tokyo Pack is the perfect opportunity to consolidate our presence in the packaging industry. We will take the opportunity to introduce to the local public our latest developments in biobased resins and our projects to support recycling through the Wecycle platform, demonstrating that many of our innovation initiatives are guided by environmental issues and by sustainable development," said José Augusto Viveiro, renewable chemicals sales director at Braskem.

Global Expansion

Braskem has been expanding its presence in the Asian market since 2010 and today has deals involving Green PE in countries such as Vietnam, China, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, India and Malaysia. In Japan alone, 366 supermarket chains distribute bags made from renewable polyethylene and over 40 products are made from the resin in applications that range from cosmetics,
personal care and home care to food packaging and more.

See below for more details on what Braskem showcased at Tokyo Pack:

I'm green™ PE

• The green resin, made from sugarcane ethanol, has the same physical properties as conventional polyethylene and can be fully recycled in the traditional recycling chain. 
• One of its main features is that the material captures 3.09 tons of CO₂ for each ton of product made, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 
• Green Plastic is manufactured at one of Braskem's plants in Brazil. The plant has annual production capacity of 200 kta of renewable resin.

I'm green™ EVA

• Developed in partnership with U.S.-based Allbirds, the EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) is made from a biobased raw material (sugarcane). 
• Featuring superior flexibility, lightness and resistance, it also helps to reduce greenhouse gases in the air by capturing and storing CO₂ during its production process. 
• The resin's applications include the footwear, automotive and transportation industries.

I'm green™ Seal

• Braskem certification that allows consumers to recognize products made from the renewable resin. 
• To be able to bear the seal, products must undergo a carbon-14 test, which is the same one used to estimate the age of fossils found around the world. 
• To be certified, the product must contain at least 51% renewable content.

Wecycle Platform

Braskem's Wecycle platform was created to foster businesses and initiatives that value post-consumer plastic waste and develop the recycling chain.
 
Source: Braskem

Hexagon Acquires Testing Technology for Type 4 HP Cylinders

Hexagon Composites ASA has moved to acquire the technology testing company Digital Wave Corporation, based in Denver, Colorado. With this acquisition, Hexagon Composites will fully integrate capabilities for testing and requalification of high-pressure cylinders.

“Hexagon has worked successfully with Digital Wave for three years to apply Modal Acoustic Emissions (MAE) technology to test Type 4 cylinders. With this acquisition we take control of the unique testing process, which effectively reduces the operators’ down time, while ensuring an approved, safe and reliable requalification method. We are further enhancing our leadership position by obtaining the most advanced capabilities and technology currently available,” said Jack Schimenti, Executive Vice President of Hexagon Composites Group. “We believe that this technology has the potential of fulfilling the holy grail of real-time health monitoring of composite cylinders.”

Digital Wave is a leading provider of modal acoustic emission (MAE) requalification and ultrasonic examination (UE) testing of pressure vessels. MAE is a relatively new and unique process that uses sound waves to measure structural integrity in composite structures. It greatly improves both routine re-qualifications and post-accident inspections.

Operators of gas transportation modules in North America are required to requalify their cylinders every five years. MAE testing collects data from cylinders under pressure and provides a comprehensive evaluation of the composite structure of each cylinder. UE is an efficient alternative to the traditional hydro-testing of all-metal cylinders.

“Hexagon Composites is a leader in the composite pressure cylinder market and a great strategic fit for Digital Wave’s array of products and patents,” adds Mike Gorman, CEO of Digital Wave Corporation. “It provides a strong platform for the Company’s employees, who have developed testing technology for all types of pressure vessels, to use their talents to expand both the range of applications and global reach for Digital Wave’s intellectual property. We are convinced that both organizations complement each other in terms of products and services and this will lead to a stronger position in the cylinder market.

Digital Wave reported revenues of USD 3.8 (NOK 31.4) million in 2017, with an adjusted EBITDA of USD 0.4 (NOK 3.0) million.
The agreed transaction value of Digital Wave is USD 7.5 million (approx. NOK 61.8 million). The signing of a definitive agreement has taken place on 26 October with expected closing in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The business will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Hexagon’s US affiliate and will continue to research and develop new products and services in this field.

Transforming Food Waste into High Quality, Fully Biodegradable Bioplastics

Luna Yu, a recent graduate from the Master of Environmental Science program at University of Toronto Scarborough teams up with a talented group of scientists and engineers — many of whom are U of T students or alum — to form Genecis. The company uses recent advancements in biotechnology, microbial engineering and machine learning to take food destined for landfill and convert it into high quality, fully biodegradable plastics.
Food waste is a significant environmental issue in North America, explains Yu. In the United States roughly 55 million tons of food is thrown away annually. Once that food hits landfill it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In fact, it’s estimated that 34 per cent of methane emissions in the U.S. alone are caused by food waste.
Luna Yu said: “We feel that by using synthetic biology create high quality products out of this organic waste in a cost-effective way – while also mitigating the effects of plastic pollution – is really the way of the future.”
Though only in her early 20s, this isn’t Yu’s first foray into entrepreneurship. She has more than six years’ experience, first at a start-up software company as an undergrad before moving to another start-up that converted restaurant food waste into biogas.
It was there that she met several talented engineers, learned about the microbiology of converting discarded food into other materials, and discovered a valuable lesson in the economics of re-using food waste.
Luna Yu said: “Converting food waste into biogas is not only a time-consuming process, the end product is fairly low value.”
It was shortly after this experience that she connected with a fellow environmental science student in The Hub, U of T Scarborough’s entrepreneurial incubator, to figure out what else could be made from food waste.
Luna Yu said:
“We looked at different types of bio-rubbers and bio-chemicals before landing on PHAs. We felt it had the biggest market potential.”

A Reusable, Biodegradable form of Plastic

PHAs, or polyhydroxyalkanoates, are a type of polymer produced in nature by bacteria that have many benefits over other forms of bio-plastics. For one, it can be a thermoplastic, meaning it can be easily molded and remolded into different products. Another benefit is that, unlike many other forms of bio-plastics, it won’t ruin the recycling process. 

Luna Yu said: “Many people throw bio-plastics into the recycling bin rather than the compost, but if it’s not a thermoplastic, it can’t be remolded,” says Yu.

“This disrupts the physical properties of new recycled products — they will end up falling apart.”
PHAs won’t cause this problem if it accidentally ends up in recycling bins, which makes it much easier for waste management companies to handle.
But what really sold Yu on PHAs is the fact that it’s fully biodegradable. PHAs degrade within one year in a terrestrial environment, and fewer than 10 years in marine environments. Meanwhile, synthetic plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade in similar environments.
Given its superior physical properties and the process it takes to create, Yu says Genecis’s PHAs are best suited for higher-end products like toys, flexible packaging, 3D-printing filament and medical applications including surgical staples, sutures and stints.
Luna Yu said: “The PHAs we create can be used to make pretty much anything, but it makes the most economic sense to use it in higher-quality, multi-use products.”
While PHAs have been in the market for the past two decades, most come directly from corn and sugarcane crops. Yu explains that the process Genecis uses to create its PHAs is much cheaper because they avoid the expenses required to acquire their feedstock.

Three-step Process

Genecis uses a three-step process to produce its PHAs, explains Michael Williamson, the company’s head of mechanical engineering and U of T engineering grad.

• First, they use a mixture of anaerobic (without oxygen) bacteria that breaks down the food waste into volatile fatty acids, similar to how food is broken down in our stomachs. 
• Next, the fatty acids are added to a mixed culture of aerobic (with oxygen) bacteria that are specially selected to produce PHAs in their cells. 
• Finally, they use an extraction process to break open the cells, collect and purify the plastic.

The process takes less than seven days from getting the food waste to having the purified plastic — making biogas, on the other hand, takes an average of 21 days. When the company opens its demonstration plant later next year, it will be able to convert three tons of organic waste into PHAs weekly. 

While the process used by Genecis works for pretty much all types of food, some foods like simple carbs and proteins can be more efficiently converted, says Yu.
The company currently has two locations — their main lab in U of T’s Banting and Best Building, in the heart of Toronto’s Discovery District, and the other in the Environmental Science and Chemistry Building at U of T Scarborough, which is responsible for research and development.

U of T start-up

In their downtown lab they work with pilot-scale bioreactors, and are continuing to scale up their operations with an industry partner to a demonstration plant by the end of next year. Meanwhile, their facility at UTSC houses smaller bioreactors that are used to help optimize their production process.
Vani Sankar, Genecis’s head of biotechnology and a postdoc at U of T Scarborough, said: “We’re fine-tuning things to figure out the best conditions to operate our bacteria cultures. This includes what combinations of temperature, pH and amount of food will give us the best yield.”
  Source: University of Toronto Scarborough