This Week in Chemical Engineering - Fuels & Petrochemicals Spotlight: February 6, 2018 | AIChE

This Week in Chemical Engineering - Fuels & Petrochemicals Spotlight: February 6, 2018

Don't miss out on the latest business and technology news for chemical engineers, featuring select items in relation to Fuels & Petrochemicals.

Future LNG terminal developers to focus on flexibility

The next wave of North American liquefied natural gas export projects will be built with flexibility in mind, as market uncertainty prompts new buyers, particularly those in emerging countries, to seek contracts for shorter periods and lower volumes. This is leading to a surge in small to mid-scale LNG export facilities with modular trains, which are supposedly less expensive to build and easier to expand if demand goes up.

Fossil fuel companies big winners from Trump's tax overhaul

Fossil fuel companies from explorers to refiners and pipeline firms are expected to get a profitability boost from the tax overhaul, with the likes of Valero Energy, Marathon Petroleum, ConocoPhillips and EOG Resources already posting billions of dollars in tax gains. The tax cuts prompted ExxonMobil to announce $50 billion in investments in the US over five years, while smaller drillers such as Murphy Oil will enjoy lower taxes on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Texas.

New device could create ethylene with sunlight, water, carbon dioxide

Scientists at the National University of Singapore are testing a device that has the potential to produce ethylene gas using a process similar to natural photosynthesis. The process works at room temperature and only requires sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.

BLM updates oil, gas drilling policies on federal land

The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday introduced a policy designed to "simplify and streamline the leasing process" for oil and natural gas development on federal land by easing "unnecessary impediments and burdens." The changes include shortening protest periods to 10 days, requiring processing of proposed lease sales within 60 days and eliminating an Obama-era policy that allowed other land users, such as anglers and hunters, to oppose lease sales.

EPA chief calls for overhaul of biofuels policy

The bankruptcy of oil refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions underscores the need to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said in an interview. "Our job should be to take the market and production levels and set volume obligations that are consistent with objective factors -- not set inflated or blue-sky types of numbers that create this inflationary pressure on RINs," Pruitt said.

Global oil demand may drop by 25% by 2040, Exxon says