Hello readers of the blog. I am back from vacation but I think I need another one as I go through my emails today. That being said, this email from Elevance Renewable Sciences is another good news from the company as it announced today its new 25:75 biorefinery collaboration with Genting Plantations Berhad through Genting Integrated Biorefinery Sdn Bhd (GIB). Elevance will become a 25% shareholder in GIB.
Elevance and Genting Plantations plan to build a 240,000 tons/year biorefinery to be located in the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) in Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia. The biorefinery will use Elevance’s metathesis technology which will use palm oil feedstock to produce renewable, high performance olefins and specialty chemicals that can be used in multiple end-product applications, including lubricants, surfactants and detergents.
As part of the collaboration agreement, GIB has agreed to pay Elevance license and design fees, and Elevance will provide intellectual property rights, knowledge transfer, and technical and consulting services. Elevance will also be exclusively responsible for the sale of all specialty chemicals that are produced at the biorefinery.
If pushed through, this will be Elevance’s third biorefinery under its belt. Elevance is currently running a 180 ktpa biorefinery in Gresik, Indonesia in a joint venture with Wilmar international. A second biorefinery solely owned by Elevance with a capacity of 280 ktpa is being constructed in Natchez, Mississippi, and is expected to start in 2016.
I am hoping to get more information about this project and will report this at this month’s Tecnon OrbiChem Bio-Materials newsletter. In the meantime, Elevance also announced recently its second cleaning solution product under the trademark Elevance Clean™ 1200, a VOC-exempt solvent for industrial degreasing applications.
The product is based on a proprietary bio-based ester blend that reportedly demonstrates excellent solvency and rapid soil penetration at neutral pH. Elevance said this product outperforms traditional and bio-based solvents such as d-limonene, methyl soyate, other ester and dibasic ester solvents, aromatics and mineral spirits, for industrial degreasing applications targeted toward heavy manufacturing, transportation maintenance and repair operations and industrial food processing.
The bio-based market in this sector is reportedly growing at twice this rate, despite some of the performance challenges. Elevance can reportedly produce tens of thousands of metric tons of the product to meet the needs of the market.
Elevance also has recently partnered with Acme-Hardesty Co., one of the largest North American distributors of renewable-based lubricants and greases, in the marketing and distribution of its new grease processing aid, Elevance Concert™ GC-350. the product reportedly enables manufacturers of complex greases to reduce total process time per batch by 25-35%, add capacity to grease manufacturing plants without investing capital, and improve the solubility of the soap thickener while maintaining current grease yields per batch.
The product is being marketed as an alternative to typical complex grease thickening systems that consist of lithium salts of short- to mid-chain diacids and 12-hydroxystearic acid. When Elevance Concert™ GC-350 is added, lithium salts of long-chain C18+ dibasic materials are incorporated into the thickener, which improves processability at lower temperatures, the company said.
One last news to add in lubricants applications, Emery Oleochemicals also announced that it has introduced its DEHYLUB® 4100 and 4071, which reportedly offer high viscosity for high temperatures applications, good lubricity for extreme processing conditions, and low pour point for cold temperatures. the fatty acid and ester-based lubricants are designed for metal working fluids, chain lubricants, hydraulic fluids and greases applications, amongst others.
