US-based private equity (PE) firm, SK Capital, has acquired Baker Hughes's specialty polymers business for an undisclosed price. Headquartered in Houston, Baker Hughes, is primarily an oil field services corporation with revenues of over $20 billion annually. This polymers business generates revenues of $100 million annually, making it a non-core business.

Some background on SK Capital:

The private equity firm specializes in the specialty materials, chemicals, and pharmaceutical sectors. they set up funds for investors, acquire businesses in these sectors, merge and restructure them, and then eventually sell for a profit. See their portfolio of current and prior companies here.

So why do they want Baker Hughes's polymer business?

The only manufacturing site in the business they are buying is located in Barnsdall, Oklahoma. The plant makes polyethylene (also PE) waxes used as plastic additives and inkjet-printer inks. SK Capital sees the business as a new platform for organic growth as well as M&A activity.

Read the press release here.

France's oil major, Total, and India's largest refiner, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL), have announced the formation of a 50:50 joint venture (JV) company to produce bitumen derivatives and specialty products in India. The JV will take over Total's existing plant in Jodhpur, India, and begin the planning for new plants.

Not a bitumen expert?

Bitumen is the liquid binder that holds asphalt together. It's a black viscous mixture of hydrocarbons that is a by-product of petroleum distillation.

Why form the JV for India?

Total leads Europe in the manufacture and supply of bitumen, and IOCL is the largest player in India's bitumen market. Together they hope to combine their knowledge (and finances) to cater to the quickly expanding road network in India and other South Asian markets.

Read the press release here.

Italy's Maire Technimont subsidiary, NextChem, has signed an agreement to license US-based LanzaTech's waste-to-fuel technology in Italy.

What is this "waste-to-fuel" technology?

LanzaTech has developed a process that obtains a gas from non-recyclable plastic waste (plasmix1) and refuse-derived oil (RDF). That gas is then processed by LanzaTech’s “syngas fermentation” technology, which produces ethanol from bacteria. That ethanol could then be used for things like hand sanitizer, as an additive in gasoline, or to produce ethyl acetate (a solvent for car paints).

Some context:

NextChem already owns technologies that can convert the same waste mentioned above into hydrogen and methanol. By partnering with LanzaTech they can now produce ethanol from the same feedstock.

Their goal?

In the words of their CEO, “NextChem aims to provide the market with technological solutions to completely replace traditional fossil-based chemistry with biochemistry and waste chemistry.".

Read the press release here.