Chemicals from Biomass

In an earlier blog, carbon dioxide as a raw material (click here to read that blog), I wrote that finding new and widespread use of carbon dioxide as a raw material for making carbon-containing chemicals is important in trying to reduce fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions.

In this blog, I identify thirteen companies that generate carbon-containing chemicals from another non-fossil source – biomass. The following table identifies those thirteen companies, along with the chemicals the companies are producing, and the countries the companies are headquartered in:

 

company	chemical product	company's country headquarters
genomatica	1,3-butylene glycol	usa
genomatica	1,4-butanediol (bdo)	usa
metabolic explorer	1.3-propanediol (pdo)	france
corbion	2,5-furandicrboxylic acid (fdca)	netherlands
genomatica	adipic acid (ada)	usa
cargill	agricultural chemicals	usa
poet	alcohols	usa
metabolic explorer	amino acid - methionine	france
genomatica	butadiene (bde)	usa
gevo	butylene	usa
genomatica	caprolactam (cpl)	usa
afyren	carboxylic acid, e.g., acetic acid	france
cargill	detergent chemicals	usa
gevo	fuels	usa
poet	fuels	usa
sbi bioenergy	fuels	canada
synthetic genomics	fuels	usa
totalenergy	fuels	france
kalion	glucaric acid	usa
kalion	glucuronic acid	usa
genomatica	hexamethylenediamine (hmd)	usa
sbi bioenergy	hydrogen	canada
global bioenergies	isobutene	france
global bioenergies	isododecane	france
global bioenergies	kerosene	france
cargill	lubricant chemicals	usa
gf biochemicals	lvulinic acid	italy
cargill	personal care chemicals	usa
cargill	plastic chemicals	usa
corbion	polylactic acid (pla)	netherlands
totalenergy	polylactic acid (pla)	france

  

The biomass that these companies indicate they produce chemicals from refers to renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals. That renewable organic material is being used means that less fossil fuels are needed as a raw material and therefore less long-time stored carbon dioxide in the fossil fuels will be emitted into the atmosphere. The thirteen companies indicate that an important consequence of their efforts to produce chemicals from biomass is just that – less carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Another source of carbon-containing chemicals (i.e., biomass rather than fossils) seems essential. Unfortunately, the many decades of development that have gone into improving the economics of fossil fuels makes the current production of carbon chemicals from biomass uncompetitive. The need to more swiftly make carbon chemical production from biomass competitive, compared to production from fossils, suggests that government interventions, such as taxes on carbon chemicals produced from fossils, are needed.

 

Carbon Dioxide as a Raw Material

In an earlier, July 2, 2021 blog, I provided information on European efforts in developing uses for carbon dioxide.  Click here to read that blog.  Today’s blog, a follow-up to that blog, is on a European success story in using carbon dioxide as a raw material for producing products.

The German chemical company Covestro has, since 2016, been manufacturing a polyol product, trade named Cardyon, which has increasing demand as a product.  Cardyon incorporates up to 20% carbon dioxide as a raw material in its production.  Covestro at its website promotes Cardyon (click here).  In its 2020 annual report, Covestro indicates that Cardyon is being used in forms found in automotive interiors.  The European company, Recticel, is using Cardyon in its foam product (click here for a description of that form product).

Also in its annual report, Covestro indicates that Cardyon is being used, or anticipated for use, in other products, e.g., in sport floors; in textile fibers; and in building insulations.  The 2021 Tokyo Olympics used a sports floor made of Cardyon in its field hockey arena. Click here for more on that.  Covestro is developing the use of Cardyon to manufacture fibers for use in textiles.  Click here for more on this.  And recently Covestro has partnered with the Brazilian company, Calçados Beira Rio, to incorporate Cardyon in shoes.  Click here to read about this.

As indicated in the July 2, 2021 blog, finding ways of using carbon dioxide as a raw material has been for several years a European Union and member states policy.  As part of this policy, a vigorous program of collaboration between European companies, research institutes, and universities has been pursued and well-funded.  In 2021, Covestro was nominated for a European Patent Office award related to the development of Cardyon.  Click here to read more about this.

Finding new and widespread uses of carbon dioxide as a raw material for making chemicals is important in trying to reduce fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions.

 

Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert – August 2021

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and metal 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 August 2021. 

Section I below lists those chemicals and metals that were on the previous month’s Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the July 2021 Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list. 

Section II lists the new chemicals and metals (not on the July 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 metals identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in shortage status are not listed. 

Section I. 

• Aluminum: global; production not keeping up with demand
• Chlorine: United States; production not keeping up with demand
• Construction materials:  United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom; production not keeping up with demand

Section II.   Shortages Reported in August not found on the Previous Month’s Lists 

• Granite: United States; production not keeping up with demand
• Oxygen: United States; production not keeping up with demand
• Packaging materials: United States; supply not keeping up with demand
• Paint: United States; production not keeping up with demand

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as:  

• Mining not keeping up with demand: none
• Production not keeping up with demand: granite; oxygen; paint
• Sources no longer available: none
• Insufficient imports:  none
• Supply not keeping up with demand: packaging materials

Europe’s Pursuit of Optical Sorting of Textile Wastes

The European Union and member countries are supporting advances in the optical sorting of textile wastes.  An excellent report, “Technical Monitoring on Optical Sorting and Textile Recognition Technologies at a European Level”, produced by France’s Eco TLC, a textile trade association, provides details on this support and the challenges faced in textile optical sorting.  Click here to read the report.

Textile waste is enormous.  Estimates found on the Internet are that in 2020 as much as 100 million metric tons of textiles might have been discarded globally. A substantial amount of this waste might be chemically treated so that the textile filers could be reused to make new textiles.  Being able to do so should significantly decrease the use of fossil fuels for producing synthetic textile fibers, e.g., polyesters, and free land for better use other than in growing cotton.

A major condition for increasing the chemical processing of waste textiles is for effective sorting of the textiles into categories related to the fibers making up the textile, e.g., sorting out polyester textile wastes from the other fiber types of wastes.  Although optical sorting of plastic wastes and other materials have been developed sufficiently well to be in commercial use, optical sorting of textile wastes needs further development.  The Eco TLC report referenced above provides an excellent review of the European status of optical sorting of textiles in 2020. 

Financial Statistics for Large Chemical Companies – Part 4

In earlier blogs I presented several financial statistics for large chemical companies. (Click here, here, and here to read these earlier blogs.)

In this blog, I am presenting in the following table, for twenty-six large global chemical companies, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization expense (ebitda) as a percentage of sales compared to net income (earnings after interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization expense) as a percentage of sales: 

 

company	net income as % of sales	ebitda as % of sales	price to earnings ratio
air products	22.6%	40.9%	31.6
akzo nobel	5.8%	14.5%	23.3
albemarle	12.0%	26.2%	38.7
arkema	5.0%	15.0%	28.1
asahi kasei	4.8%	13.7%	14.6
basf	0.0%	11.0%	31.9
celanese	35.1%	40.2%	7.3
chemours	6.6%	17.6%	22.2
clariant	15.4%	26.0%	53.5
covestro	4.3%	13.8%	24.0
dow	3.2%	14.5%	11.6
dsm	6.3%	18.9%	47.6
dupont	0.0%	24.7%	35.3
eastman	5.8%	12.9%	49.1
evonik	3.8%	15.6%	22.3
fmc	12.0%	27.2%	21.5
huntsman	10.8%	17.7%	9.1
kemira	5.8%	17.9%	18.2
lanxess	14.9%	14.1%	4.6
linde	9.2%	31.7%	49.2
lyondellbasell	5.0%	14.0%	8.5
sekisui	5.2%	11.8%	16.0
solvay	0.0%	21.9%	23.8
trinseo	0.3%	10.0%	5.7
umicore	9.2%	16.6%	32.7
wacker	4.3%	14.2%	27.6
westlake	4.4%	16.0%	25.7
yara	5.9%	19.0%	11.6
average	7.8%	19.2%	24.8

 

Also in the table is the recent stock price per share to earnings per share ratio for each company.

In many of the company annual reports, management provide discussion on how the ebitda margins (ebitda as a percentage of sales) is an important financial metric for measuring the company’s success. The discussions suggest that ebitda margins are a more relevant metric than net income margins (net income as a percentage of sales).

Apparently, investors in these companies’ stocks also believe ebitda margins are more relevant than net income margins for investment decisions, as shown in the following table:

 

correlations	correlation result
net income as % of sales to ebitda as % of sales	76%
net income as % of sales to price to earnings ratio	-5%
ebitda as % of sales to price to earnings ratio	25%

 

This table shows correlations between net income margins to ebitda margins, net income margins to price to earnings ratios, and ebitda margins to price to earnings ratios. Price to earnings ratios indicate how much an investor is willing to pay for a company’s earnings – the higher the ratio, the more the investor is willing to pay.

The correlation between net income and ebitda margins is good, as would be expected. However, there is poor correlation between net income margins and price to earnings ratios compared to the correlation between ebitda margins and price to earnings ratios. This suggests to me that investors, like company managers, view ebitda margins as a better metric for evaluating the company’s success.

Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert – July 2021

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and metal 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 July 2021. 

Section I below lists those chemicals and metals that were on the previous month’s Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the June 2021 Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list. 

Section II lists the new chemicals and metals (not on the June 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 metals identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in shortage status are not listed. 

Section I. 

• Aluminum: global; production not keeping up with demand
• Chlorine: United States; production not keeping up with demand
• Construction materials:  United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom; production not keeping up with demand
• Foam: United States; production not keeping up with demand
• Lumber:  United Kingdom and United States; supply not keeping up with demand
• Polysilicon: global; production not keeping up with demand
• Steel:  global; production not keeping up with demand 

Section II.   Shortages Reported in July not found on the Previous Month’s Lists 

Citric acid: United States; supply not keeping up with demand 

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as:  

• Mining not keeping up with demand: none
• Production not keeping up with demand: none
• Government regulations: none
• Sources no longer available: none
• Insufficient imports:  none
• Supply not keeping up with demand:  citric acid