Common keywords of Dow, LG, Wanhua and other new projects: carbon neutral

Dow announced a series of plans and projects at the recent Investor Day to promote a sustainable future, including building the world's first "net-zero carbon" emission ethylene cracking and derivatives integrated base; signing eight projects The renewable energy purchase agreement will reduce more than 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions each year; and expand its global production capacity for recycled plastics.

Dow will build the world's first integrated base for ethylene cracking and derivatives with net zero carbon emissions, involving Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon dioxide emissions. This investment will decarbonize approximately 20% of Dow’s global ethylene capacity, increase its polyethylene supply capacity by approximately 15%, and increase its entire value chain EBITDA to approximately US$1 billion by 2030.

Dow has signed eight new renewable energy purchase agreements (RPA), covering Europe and the Americas. According to the new purchase agreement, these renewable energy sources are expected to reduce Dow's annual emissions of more than 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Dow also announced its progress in preventing plastic waste, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and providing customers with recycled plastic products. Dow's recycled plastic products have the same properties as virgin plastics derived from fossil fuel raw materials.

These major developments will enable Dow to provide customers with fully recycled polymers starting in 2022. Dow has set a goal that by 2030, through its direct actions and partnerships, 1 million tons of plastic will be collected, reused or recycled; by 2035, Dow will use 100% of its products for packaging applications Achieve reusable or renewable use.

LG Chem announces its formal entry into the solar panel frame market

Recently, LG Chem announced on its official website that it is the first in South Korea to develop plastic materials that can replace the metal frame of solar panels. LG Chem stated that the company used its proprietary technology and manufacturing methods to develop a new material "LUPOY EU5201", which is a PC/ASA flame-retardant material that has low thermal expansion and can maintain its shape even when the outside temperature changes. .

The durability of this new material is comparable to that of aluminum, which is now widely used, but the weight is only half of the latter, and the price is very competitive. This new material also improves the chemical decomposition effect that occurs due to ultraviolet radiation. Even if it is exposed to ultraviolet light for a long time, it can keep the color unchanged, thereby greatly extending the service life of the product.

If LG Chem’s new engineering plastic material is used to replace the existing aluminum, it is expected to significantly reduce the weight of solar panels and reduce the cost of materials. At the same time, transportation and installation will be more convenient.

LG Chem announced last year that it would "achieve carbon-neutral growth by 2050" and was the first company in the Korean petrochemical industry to set such a goal. The company is promoting the "RE100" initiative, that is, 100% of all workplaces in the world use renewable energy to produce products. LG Chem plans to accelerate carbon-neutral growth through the transition to renewable energy, and to contribute to the development of solar and other renewable energy industries through the development of LUPOY EU5201 products.

Actively deploy new energy power generation, Wanhua transforms into clean energy

As a traditional chemical company, Wanhua needs to consume a lot of coal resources in its production. For example: Wanhua MDI plant consumes about 1.69 tons of raw coal and 1.1 tons of steam coal in the process of producing 1 ton of MDI. In recent years, Wanhua has started an active strategic layout in the upstream new energy fields such as nuclear power, wind power, and photovoltaics. In the future, the company will use clean energy as the main source of energy to reduce the use of thermal coal, so that all coal indicators can be used on raw coal without increasing the use of coal.

Recently, Wanhua Chemical and Huaneng Group jointly established Huaneng (Haiyang) Photovoltaic New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. to jointly build Huaneng Shandong Power Co., Ltd. in Xin’an Town, Haiyang City, Yantai City, Shandong Province. Fishing and light complementary photovoltaic power station project. The project has an installed capacity of 600MWP and an annual on-grid power of 700 million kWh. The equivalent replacement reduces coal by 280,000 tons and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by more than 700,000 tons per year.

In February 2021, the environmental impact assessment report of the Meishan Phase II Lithium Battery Ternary Material Project with an annual output of 10,000 tons was accepted by the Meishan City Ecological Environment Bureau, and it is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2021. In March 2021, Wanhua invested 736 million yuan in a lithium battery research and development pilot project. After completion, the original production line of Yantai Zhuoneng can be used for the production of ternary cathode materials, which is expected to be put into operation in the near future. The second phase of Wanhua University's ethylene project began to deploy new energy materials represented by POE. The POE project was first proposed at the 2018 shareholders meeting. Wanhua positioned POE as one of the fourth-generation products at the 2019 shareholders meeting. The 2020 shareholder meeting Wanhua indicated that the future market for POE is very large, and the company’s pilot-scale products can basically reach the level of imports. From the perspective of the company's emphasis, POE will be the next important track for Wanhua Chemical.

Merger and acquisition of EVA leader Serbon Petrochemical, Oriental Shenghong enters the new track

In May of this year, Dongfang Shenghong officially launched the reorganization of the same parent company, Shenghong Group's Serbon Petrochemical, and will enter the new energy and new material track, which will help to build Dongfang Shenghong's "refining + polyester + new Material" integrated petrochemical leader. On the evening of July 9, Oriental Shenghong issued an announcement stating that the company intends to purchase and trade 100% of Serbang shares through the issuance of shares and payment in cash. The final transaction price was determined to be 14.36 billion yuan.

According to a research report by Cinda Securities, China's current import dependence on EVA for photovoltaic materials is close to 60%. The cumulative installed capacity of China's photovoltaic market has a five-year compound annual growth rate of 43.48%. The superimposed "carbon neutral" policy is gradually implemented. China's photovoltaic market still has broad space, and the demand for photovoltaic materials EVA is a blue ocean.

At present, there are very few domestic manufacturers capable of mass-producing photovoltaic EVA. There are only three companies, namely Serbon, Levima, and Ningbo Formosa Plastics. The cumulative capacity available for the production of photovoltaic EVA is less than 400,000 tons. It is understood that Serbon is the largest domestic supplier of EVA. In the field of EVA photovoltaic film materials, its production capacity ranks first in the country, accounting for 31%. According to public information, the designed production capacity of the MTO plant currently in operation in Serbia is about 2.4 million tons/year (calculated as methanol), and the downstream equipment is equipped with 300,000 tons/year EVA, 180,000 tons of EO, 520,000 tons of AN and 17 Ten thousand tons of MMA.

In addition, on September 27th, the signing ceremony for the carbon dioxide to green methanol project between Serbon Petrochemical and Iceland Carbon Cycle International was held in Beijing. The world's first "CO2 Capture and Utilization-Green Methanol-New Energy Materials" industrial chain project jointly built by China and Iceland was officially launched.

The first phase of the project has an investment of nearly 300 million yuan and is expected to be put into operation in 2022. The project can recover the carbon dioxide in the industrial exhaust gas to produce photovoltaic-grade EVA resin, the core component material of photovoltaic panels, which will eventually be used in photovoltaic power generation, creating a new green path of "turning carbon into treasure": carbon dioxide-methanol ——Photovoltaic grade EVA resin.