Thursday, April 30, 2015

Chemical and Material Shortage Alert – April 2015

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and material shortages reported on the Internet.  The sources of the information reported here are primarily news releases issued on the Internet.  The issue period of the news releases is April 2015.

Section I below lists those chemicals and materials that were on the previous Chemical and Material Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the March 2015 Chemical and Material Shortage Alert list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and materials (not on the March alert).  Also provided is some explanation for the shortage and geographical information.  This blog attempts to list only actual shortage situations – those shortages that are being experienced during the period covered by the news releases.   Chemicals and materials identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in short supply status are not listed.

Section I.   Chemicals and materials that continue from March to be reported as in short supply are:  polypropylene (Europe)

Section II.   Shortages Reported in April not found on the Previous Month’s List

Ethylene:  Korea; Europe; production not keeping up with demand
Iron Ore:  India; government regulations; mining not keeping up with demand
Scrap Metal:  Ukraine; supply not keeping up with demand

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as: 

1.  Mining not keeping up with demand: iron ore
2.  Production not keeping up with demand: ethylene
3.  Government regulations: iron ore
4.  Sources no longer available: none
5.  Insufficient imports:  none
6.  Supply not keeping up with demand:  scrap metal





Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Some CCS and STE Statistics, and Liquid Fuels from CO2

Some Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Project Statistics.  A 2014 Global CCS Institute report (click here to read the report – PDF file) indicates 22 large-scale CCS projects are currently in operation or construction, globally, and, these 22 projects have the capacity to capture approximately 40 Mtpa (million tonnes per annum) of CO2.  This 22 number is double the number from 2010.  Included in the 22 are 3 large-scale power plants and 1 steel plant.   Although 40 Mtpa represents a very small percentage of the total 2014 globally-generated CO2 atmospheric emissions (estimated at around 26,000 Mtpa), I suspect that what is learned from these hopefully successful projects will lead to an ever increasing number of CCS projects and a significant increasing percentage of captured CO2, sooner rather than later.

Some Solar Thermal Electricity (STE) Generating Project Statistics.   A 2014 International Energy Agency report (click here to read this report – PDF file) indicates that since 2010 the amount of cumulative capacity of STE facilities have gone from slightly less than 1 gigawatt (GW) to close to 4 GW.   In 2014, 5 countries had STE facilities (Spain, the highest number; United States; UAE; Morocco; and South Africa), generating about 5.5 TWh (terawatt hours)/year.  The STE-generating growth rate, along with details provided in the report, suggest that STE technology is making good progress.

Liquid Fuels from CO2.   I learned while searching for CCS and STE statistics of what seems like a monumentally important connection between CCS and STE technologies – using STE as a source of renewable energy to make liquid fuels from captured CO2.

Using STE technology as a renewable energy source to convert the captured CO2 to liquid fuels makes a lot of sense to me.  For one thing, a key problem with CCS seems to be its expense.  Using the captured CO2 as feedstock for liquid fuels (liquid fuels obviously are in great demand) allows for a large revenue stream to offset the CCS expense.  Then also, the liquid fuels can be used in ways such that the CO2 from the burnt fuel can again be recaptured (not emitted to the atmosphere) so that the process becomes the recycling of CO2 over and over again.  A result of this is the elimination of a lot of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere from power and other industrial plants, where the fuel will be used and the CO2 recaptured.  Using a renewable energy source (solar energy) and productively using an large supply of CO2, which is going to be saved, whether reused or not, seems to me to be potentially a game changer in our climate-changing world.

A 2010 article, by Jiang, Xiao, Kuznetsov, and Edwards, provides a review of the opportunities and challenges of turning carbon dioxide into fuel.  (Click here to read this article – PDF file)


Tuesday, April 7, 2015

China’s Coal Gasification to Chemicals Developments

Based much on data provided by the Gasification Technologies Council (click here), China has been pursuing an increased use of coal gasification technology as a source of chemicals.  For example, since 2010, 8 relatively large coal gasification to chemical plants have been started in China (click here; PDF file).  Chemicals being produced at these plants include:  methanol; polypropylene; olefins; and ammonia.  This compares to no new gasification to chemical plants started in the United States since 2000 (click here; jpg file).


The reasons for the differences in this comparison between China and the United States with respect to new gasification plants are certainly complex, involving market, government policy, and other forces and factors way beyond my ability to discuss knowledgeably.  However, from what little I do know, the potential of gasification of coal, biomass, and wastes as a source of chemicals as well as energy and fuels, while  greatly reducing carbon dioxide emissions (through capture and sequestration), is great.   So, whatever China is doing in coal gasification should be followed closely.  Also, China’s activities in this area could hopefully represent good opportunities for American, and other companies, to collaborate with (sell to) Chinese companies.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Chemical and Material Shortage Alert – March 2015

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and material shortages reported on the Internet.  The sources of the information reported here are primarily news releases issued on the Internet.  The issue period of the news releases is March 2015.

Section I below lists those chemicals and materials that were on the previous Chemical and Material Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the February 2015 Chemical and Material Shortage Alert list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and materials (not on the February alert).  Also provided is some explanation for the shortage and geographical information.  This blog attempts to list only actual shortage situations – those shortages that are being experienced during the period covered by the news releases.   Chemicals and materials identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in short supply status are not listed.

Section I.   Chemicals and materials that continue from February to be reported as in short supply are:  polyethylene (Middle East)

Section II.   Shortages Reported in March not found on the Previous Month’s List

Glass:  San Francisco, USA; insufficient imports
Polypropylene: Europe; production not keeping up with demand

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as: 

1.  Mining not keeping up with demand: none
2.  Production not keeping up with demand: polypropylene
3.  Government regulations: none
4.  Sources no longer available: none
5.  Insufficient imports:  glass
6.  Supply not keeping up with demand:  none