Austrian petrochemical producer, Borealis, has announced the first delivery of naphtha to its brand new underground salt cavern in Porvoo, Finland.

Underground salt cavern?

Constructed for the first time in 1961, salt caverns are made by dissolving a cavity in an underground salt formation. The salt is inert to liquid hydrocarbons, so naphtha and other petroleum products can be stored without repercussions. The resulting caverns can be enormous and reach volumes larger than 1 million cubic meters. Borealis's new cavern is only 80,000 cubic meters (roughly the same volume as 14 Goodyear Blimps).

Why make the cavern?

Borealis operates six production plants in Porvoo, Finland, which is the largest refining and industrial complex in the Nordic countries. The company uses naphtha (which can come from a renewable source) to produce olefins using its steam crackers. The new cavern will enable Borealis to "source and store naphtha for its Porvoo operations from the global market in a more flexible, cost-efficient, and secure way.".

Read the press release here.

A joint venture between Nouryon, the AzkoChemicals spin-off specialty chemicals company and Indian chemical company Atul has received environmental clearance to expand its monochloroacetic acid (MCA) capacity in India.

Why MCA?

While MCA is used in pharmaceuticals and crop protection, it is mainly used to produce cellulose gum (CMC) and modified starch. These products have countless applications ranging from ice cream emulsion stabilization and Mac n' Cheese to wallpaper adhesives.

So why do we need to make more of it?

According to the Head of Strategy at Nouryon, "MCA serves several high-growth sectors," and that this expansion will increase "overall MCA production capacity by more than 20 percent to help [them] capture demand growth." When the plan reaches full production capacity in the first half of 2021 it will be the largest MCA plant in India.

Read the press release here.

French environmental services company, Veolia, in partnership with Waga Energy has announced that it has begun constructing a biomethane from landfill gas unit for a landfill just outside of Paris, France.

A little background:

Waga Energy has developed a modular solution to recover the gas emitted from landfills. Landfill gas can be a pain to purify because it contains air. Waga Energy combines membrane filtration (to remove CO2 and other impurities) with cryogenic distillation (to separate the methane from the air in the gas). What you're left with is a 98% pure feed of methane from renewable sources.

What do we use that biomethane for?

When this landfill gas recovery plant begins operations in 2022, it will supply that renewable methane to 20,000 homes in the Paris region. The plant will prevent the emission of 25,000 tons of CO2 per year (roughly equivalent to about 5,000 cars per year).

Read more here on Renewable Energy Magazine.