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Search results for: โ€œPETโ€

  • Polyester: production process?

    Polyester: production process?

    Polyester is the most produced textile fiber on planet Earth. Of the world’s 8GTpa of oil and gas production, 80MTpa, or 1% ends up as PET, via eleven chemical processing stages that span naphtha-reforming, BTX separation into paraxylene, oxidation to PTA, plus ethane cracking, ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol. This data file covers the polyester…

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  • Plastic products: energy and CO2 intensity of plastics?

    Plastic products: energy and CO2 intensity of plastics?

    The energy intensity of plastic products and the CO2 intensity of plastics are built up from first principles in this data-file. Virgin plastic typically embeds 3-4 kg/kg of CO2e. But compared against glass, PET bottles embed 60% less energy and 80% less CO2. Compared against virgin PET, recycled PET embeds 70% less energy and 45%…

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  • Carbios: plastic recycling breakthrough?

    Carbios: plastic recycling breakthrough?

    Carbios has developed an enyzmatic process to recycle 90% of PET within 10-hours, which has been described in Nature. “This highly efficient, optimized enzyme outperforms all PET hydrolases reported so far”. Economics and CO2 savings can be very exciting. But our work identifies four challenges, which were hard to re-risk.

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  • Recycling: a global overview of energy savings?

    Recycling: a global overview of energy savings?

    1GTpa of material is recycled globally, across steel, paper, glass, plastics and other metals. On average, 35% of these materials are produced from recycled feeds, saving 70% of the energy and CO2, with upside in the Energy Transition.

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  • Purified terephthalic acid: PTA production costs?

    Purified terephthalic acid: PTA production costs?

    A PTA price of $800-850/ton is needed to earn a 10% IRR on a new, integrated petrochemical facility, catalytically reforming naphtha into paraxylene, then oxidizing the paraxylene into purified terephthalic acid, with upfront capex cost of $1,300/Tpa. Feedstock costs, energy prices and CO2 prices matter too.

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  • Commodity prices: metals, materials and chemicals?

    Commodity prices: metals, materials and chemicals?

    Annual commodity prices are tabulated in this database for 70 materials commodities; covering steel prices, other metal prices, chemicals prices, polymer prices, all with data going back to 2012. 2022 was a record year for commodities. The average material commodity traded 25% above its 10-year average and 60% of all material commodities made ten-year highs.

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  • Plastic recycling: the economics?

    Plastic recycling: the economics?

    Plastic recycling requires a $500/ton product price, to earn a 10% IRR off of c$1,000/Tpa of up-front capex, at a mechanical recycling facility with 0.3 tons/ton of CO2 intensity (up to 80-90% below virgin plastics, more than we expected). This data-file captures the economics and the costs of plastic recycling, especially for the mechanical recycling…

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  • Global plastic demand: breakdown by product, region and use?

    Global plastic demand: breakdown by product, region and  use?

    Global plastic is estimated at 470MTpa in 2022, rising to at least 800MTpa by 2050. This data-file is a breakdown of global plastic demand, by product, by region and by end use, with historical data back to 1990 and our forecasts out to 2050. Our top conclusions for plastic in the energy transition are summarized.

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  • Landfill costs: by country and over time?

    Landfill costs: by country and over time?

    This data-file tabulates the most likely costs of placing waste-material (e.g., plastic) into landfill, country by country, and over time. Landfill taxes have risen at an 8% CAGR on average, clearly reduce landfilling rates, and promote recycling. This short note spells out our top five conclusions on landfill taxes by country and over time.

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  • Origin Materials: bio-plastics breakthrough?

    Origin Materials: bio-plastics breakthrough?

    Origin Materials went public via SPAC in February-2021, as it was acquired by Artius Acquisition Inc at a valuation of $1.8bn. Its ambition is to use wood residues to create carbon-negative plastics, cost-competitively with petroleum products. This data-file outlines our conclusions from reviewing patents.

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