Pan-Asia PET Resin (Guangzhou), a subsidiary of Full Apex (Holdings) (Singapore), plans to invest $3.8 billion in a polyester manufacturing complex at Jazan, Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Aramco is building a new refinery and a para-xylene (p-xylene) production facility.
The news follows the signing last year of an agreement between Guangzhou Industrial Development Corp. and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu to allow foreign direct investment by Chinese businesses in Jazan.
Pan-Asia PET Resin, plans to build plants producing 2.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of purified terephthalic acid, 1 MMt/y of PET resin, and 200,000 metric tons/year each of polyester engineering plastics, thin film and polyester fiber. The company envisages the project’s completion in mid-2020. The commission in March allocated land for the project.
Lin Wencai, vice president of Full Apex (Holdings), says that the project will benefit from proximity to raw materials, with a large p-xylene facility under construction at Jazan and from proximity to markets in the Middle East and North Africa. Aramco has ambitions to become a major petrochemicals producer. It’s Jazan p-xylene facility will be designed for 800,000 metric tons/year.
By Natasha Alperowicz
Source: Chemical Week
France has launched an offshore green hydrogen production platform at the country’s Port of Saint-Nazaire this week, along with its first offshore wind farm. The hydrogen plant, which its operators say is the world’s first facility of its type, coincides with the launch of another “first of its kind” facility in Sweden dedicated to storing hydrogen in an underground lined rock cavern (LRC).
The project sets up the Hydrogen Valley in Rome, the first industrial-scale technological hub for the development of the national supply chain for the production, transport, storage and use of hydrogen for the decarbonization of industrial processes and for sustainable mobility.
At first glance, hydrogen seems to be the perfect solution to our energy needs. It doesn’t produce any carbon dioxide when used. It can store energy for long periods of time. It doesn’t leave behind hazardous waste materials, like nuclear does. And it doesn’t require large swathes of land to be flooded, like hydroelectricity. Seems too good to be true. So…what’s the catch?
