High temperature cracking consumes fuel creating GHG & pollutants

From the Spring 2022 Newsletter of Concerned Ohio River Residents, WV – OH – PA

The Thai company, PTT Global Chemical America returned $20 million to the state of Ohio since they did not meet the deadline set forth in the agreement they made with the state years ago. They have not started construction and their air permit with Ohio EPA expired in Feb. 2022 as well. The state gave the company around $70 million total to prep the site in Dilles Bottom, OH to build the massive ethane cracker/plastics plant, and now that they had to return a good portion of it, many are questioning even more if the plant will ever get built.

“PTTGCA’s decision to let the air permit expire is the latest indicator that the project is extremely unlikely to move forward, and certainly will not be moving forward any time soon,” said Megan Hunter, senior attorney at the Chicago-based EarthJustice advocacy organization. “We are thankful that at least for now, the community is safe from the air pollution that would come from the facility.”

“Currently in the global economy, there is a massive overcapacity for the production of ethylene and polyethylene,” said Sean O’Leary, senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute. “There’s been massive build-out along the Gulf Coast, and there’s also been major build-out in Asia, particularly in China. The competitive atmosphere is a pretty daunting one.”

What does this latest news mean for the Ohio Valley? No one is for certain, but we will keep you updated as we learn more about the situation. We should continue to push our elected officials to move on to some type of development that is sustainable and healthy, rather than extractive and dirty. Let’s come together in a positive way and create the future we want to have in the Ohio Valley.

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Lyondell Basell to shutter Houston oil refinery in exit from refining

From an Article by Erwin Seba, Reuters News Service, April 21, 2022

HOUSTON, April 21 (Reuters) – Chemical maker Lyondell Basell Industries will permanently close its Houston crude oil refinery by the end of 2023. The decision comes after two failed attempts to sell the plant and the closing of five U.S. refineries in the last two years. Refining until recently has been beset by high costs and low margins.

“After thoroughly analyzing our options, we have determined that exiting the refining business by the end of next year is the best strategic and financial path forward,” said Ken Lane, interim chief executive. The refinery, which makes gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, will remain in operation and the company will continue to seek potential transactions and/or alternatives for the roughly 700-acre site on the Houston Ship Channel.

The company earlier took a $264 million impairment charge as part of its decision to exit refining. In the past 10 years, Lyondell has twice mounted efforts to sell the 263,776 barrel-per-day refinery but failed to conclude a deal.

John Auers, executive vice president of Turner, Mason & Co, a Dallas-based energy consultancy, said Thursday’s announcement means “there will definitely be people knocking on the door” to look at the refinery. “The refinery could sell for a significant amount,” Auers said. “I certainly don’t expect it to close given this statement.”

Lyondell said the refinery, once the anchor of its supply chain as a regional chemical company, no longer fit with its global petrochemical production. “While this was a difficult decision, our exit of the refining business advances the company’s decarbonization goals, and the site’s prime location gives us more options for advancing our future strategic objectives, including circularity,” Lane said. Circularity refers to efforts by plastics manufacturers to increase spare finished plastics from landfills and return them to the supply chain for chemical plants.

Queen Elizabeth seeks to stop spread of plastics

From an Article via Lazer Tecnologia, February 12, 2018

Queen Elizabeth has long expressed admiration for David Attenborough, an environmentalist with a track record of creating handsome, compelling movies about our planet.

Julian Kirby, campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Blue Planet’s reach now extends to the Royal households which shows how much momentum is building behind the war on plastic pollution”. But it also explored the disastrous effects of waste on the world’s waters.

Queen Elizabeth II wants to live in a cleaner and greener environment.

After watching Attenborough’s BBC documentary “Blue Planet II” a year ago, Queen Elizabeth II spearheaded a campaign that requires the guests and organizers of royal events to not use straws and bottles. According to The Telegraph, straws will also be phased out of all public cafes inside the royal residences.

Water will be served from glass bottles in all meetings at the palaces. At all levels, there’s a strong desire to tackle this issue’.

‘Across the organisation, the Royal Household is committed to reducing its environmental impact, ‘ a Palace spokesman told the Telegraph.

Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary on January 2, 2018 in Cliffe, Kent. Plastic pieces, including microplastics, also end up swallowed by fish – which then causes them to die. Prince Charles has delivered several speeches about damage to the oceans. In one recent talk, he warned of an “escalating ecological and human disaster” from refuse in the seas. Charles and Dame Ellen MacArthur teamed up to offer a million-dollar cash prize to anyone with a great idea for keeping garbage out of the ocean. Ten per cent of that ends up in the sea. There are also some predictions suggesting that plastic waste in the sea will outweigh the fishes by 2050.

Anadarko, which is drilling extensively on state forest land in Pennsylvania, decided last year to convert all its Marcellus operations into closed-loop systems, eliminating pits and collecting debris in steel containers that are carted to landfills. It also received state permission to dig up the buried cuttings from about a dozen wells it already had drilled. “We want to say we haven’t buried anything here,” said Steve Woelfel, Anadarko’s drilling-operations manager in Appalachia. “It always could be a risk. It could come back to you.”

Anadarko says the closed-loop system is part of a broader “no-spill” strategy aimed at keeping all materials contained during the drilling process. Said Scott Chesebro, Anadarko’s engineering manager for Appalachian operations: “Nothing we bring to the surface touches the ground.”

In some states, operators dispose of drilling debris by plowing it into fields, a practice known as “land-farming.” Other “beneficial uses” include using cuttings on gravel roads or mixing them with asphalt as paving material. Jamie Legenos, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said the state had received no formal requests for “beneficial uses” of drill cuttings.

Natural gas drilling has aroused such ardent opposition (in northeast Pennsylvania) that even disposing of cuttings at approved landfills has raised alarms, forcing landfill operators to assure local officials that all incoming waste is tested for radioactivity and hazardous materials.  See the news article here.