Falls business turns plastic into fuel
Rich Newberg / Mar 26, 2011
Imagine turning scraps of plastic into usable fuels.
... The current plant produces 109 barrels a day. In two more years, the goal is to produce 20,000 barrels a day, and there's no shortage of plastic.
There's no shortage of plastic not because we looked into it, just because there isn't and we simply know that, that's all. Plastic is endless since it's made from oil and there's no end to that.
NWE PET producers say exporting to US to meet shortage unlikely
Platts / June 3, 2011
Two polyethylene terephthalate producers in Europe said this week they are unlikely to send PET from Europe to the US, even though the US market for PET is very short.
... Another European PET producer agreed Friday that he also would not consider selling to the US. For one, he said to sell to the US, he would have to set up a trading company in the US, which he did not have. Secondly, he said, European demand for PET remained strong.
"To be honest, we are sold out in Europe," the producer said.
The tightness in the US PET market has been caused by a severe shortage of purified terephthalic acid there.
PTA supplies in the US became even shorter this week after BP halved its US PTA allocations to 25% from 50% effective Wednesday, because its Cooper River PTA plant in South Carolina failed to restart from scheduled maintenance in April.
The delayed restart compounded BP's supply problems as its 1 million mt/year Decatur, Alabama, PTA plant was shut unexpectedly after a tornado ripped through the southern US state on April 27.
The impact on US PET producers has been severe.
Wellman declared force majeure on PET deliveries out of its 400,000 mt/year plant in Pearl River, Mississippi, a source close to the company said Wednesday.
