Don't miss out on the latest business and technology news for chemical engineers, featuring select items in relation to Fuels & Petrochemicals.
Par Pacific Holdings to acquire Wash. state refining company for $358M
Houston-based Par Pacific Holdings is reaching further into Pacific Northwest markets with the $358 million acquisition of Tacoma, Wash.-based US Oil & Refining, whose assets include a 42,000-barrel-a-day refinery, 2.9 million barrels of storage and a marine terminal. "This transformative acquisition connects our existing assets in Hawaii, Pacific Northwest and the Rockies to create an integrated downstream network with significantly enhanced scale and diversification," said Par Pacific Holdings President and CEO William Pate.
Project to convert plastic waste into fuel
SABIC has chosen The Netherlands as the site for a demonstration plant that will convert plastic waste into a fuel source for its crackers. "We are supporting greatly the mechanical recycling of plastics but we believe that the long term sustainable circular economy will lie in chemical recycling," executive Abdulrahman al-Fageeh says.
Industry must work together to tackle plastics issues, execs say
Plastics waste is a global issue, and ending it will require collaboration among the chemical industry and other sectors, said executives from ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell at the 13th Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association Annual Forum. LyondellBasell's James Seward called for innovative recycling solutions and increased spending on waste collection and sorting.
Aviation sector hopes to cut carbon emissions by using biofuels
More airlines are using renewable jet fuels in an effort to reduce carbon emissions, with researchers looking for sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, such as carinata and Greek yogurt waste. One of the first refineries to produce biofuel from beef tallow, an animal byproduct, is AltAir Fuels' Paramount refinery in Los Angeles, which also converts hemp and chicken fat into jet fuel.
EPA to require more advanced biofuel blending in 2019
The Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly planning to boost the federal mandate for advanced biofuels by 15% to 4.92 billion gallons in 2019 while leaving blending requirements for conventional biofuels unchanged at 15 billion gallons. The EPA has also decided against reallocating volumes waived through small refinery exemptions.
Trump halts biofuel waivers to allow review, sources say
Sources say that the program that waives domestic biofuel requirements for small oil refineries has been placed on hold by the Trump administration. The governmental review could lead to changes in the program, which allows small refineries to seek exemptions from adding corn-based ethanol to fuel if compliance would cause financial hardship.
EPA rejects reallocation requests for waived biofuel volumes
An Environmental Protection Agency official said that requests to reallocate waived biofuel volumes under the small refinery exemption program into the 2019 biofuel mandate have been rejected by the agency. "The primary reason why we're not reallocating in this rule is because we have no idea what the volume of SREs will be for calendar [year] 2019 and we won't know that late 2019, early 2020. All we could do is guess, and we don't do regulations by guessing here," the official said.
EPA releases final ruling for renewable fuel volumes
A final rule regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard 2019 required renewable fuel volumes and 2020 biomass-based diesel volumes was published by the Environmental Protection Agency. The rule includes maintaining the conventional renewable fuel volumes at the current 15 billion gallon level set for 2019 and increasing 2019 advanced biofuel volumes and cellulosic biofuel volumes by 630 million gallons and almost 130 million gallons, respectively, over 2018 volumes.
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