German chemical giant, BASF, has acquired Sinopec's alkoxylate assets for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will allow BASF's site in Jinshan, China to increase its capacity for a growing Chinese market.

Alkoxylation?

Alkoxylation is the name of the process by which ethylene oxide (EO) or propylene oxide (PO) are reacted with an alcohol. Both EO and PO are derivatives of olefins (which are typically produced by the steam cracking of oil & gas products). Alkoxyaltion primarily produces surfactants (which go into soaps, detergents, surface cleaners, etc.) and polyols (which end up becoming foams like your mattress).

So why is the acquisition happening?

SVP of BASF's Care Chemicals division says that they "are seeing a rising demand for high-quality alkoxylates in the Asia Pacific market, especially in China.". Sinopec's assets were adjacent to BASF's Jinshan site, making the acquisition more like an expansion of their site than anything else.

Read the press release here.

UK-based styrene producer and INEOS subsidiary, INEOS Styrolution, has announced that is has signed a joint development agreement with Recycling Technologies to develop a commercial solution to recycle polystyrene.

Some context:

INEOS Styrolution has signed similar agreements with quite a few other recycling start-ups. Back in 2017, they signed an agreement with US polystyrene recycler Agilyx, and a year later they signed an agreement with Canadian ReVital Polymers and Pyrowave.

Bigger picture:

INEOS Styrolution is partnering with many different companies in the hopes of making polystyrene a sustainable (and therefore more valuable) material. All of these recycling start-ups are developing depolymerization technologies, which is the holy grail of plastics recycling.

Read the press release here.

Headquartered in London, oil & gas major BP has announced the start-up of its brand new naptha hydrotreater (NHT). The unit is located at their 435,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Whiting, Indiana.

What's the point of the new unit?

The $300 million unit uses hydrogen to remove sulfur and nitrogen containing compounds. According to BP spokeswoman Sarah Howell, the unit "allows the refinery to produce the full slate of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 3 fuels, which require gasoline to have an average sulfur content of no more than 10 parts per million,".

Zooming out:

The Tier 2 Gasoline Sulfur program, from back in 2000, reduced emissions of sulfur from gasoline by 90%. Tier 3 became effective back in 2017, and further reduced the maximum sulfur content allowable in gasoline (from 30ppm to 10ppm).

P.S. BP announced some big strategy shifts just last week, check out their plans here.

Read more about the NHT here on Reuters.