Under the Biden administration, the U.S. has re-enrolled in the Paris Agreement, while announcing a new target of cutting 50-52% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. Sustainability has become a top priority for governments and corporations worldwide, with significant support from consumers looking to remove single-use plastics and non-biodegradable materials from…
The Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to well below 2 °C compared to pre-industrial levels will be challenged by decarbonization of several hard-to-abate sectors. The chemical industry along with cement, iron and steel, shipping, and aviation are among the hard-to-abate sectors. Hard-to-abate sectors are highly energy-intensive sectors where fossil fuels serve as the…
Research and development on chemical recycling with emphasis on pyrolysis is rapidly advancing towards commercialization. Chemical recycling is dominated by pyrolysis or monomer recycling. Pyrolysis is heating plastic waste at high temperature in the absence of oxygen and converting it into a liquid known as pyrolysis oil. Pyrolysis oil can be used in various applications…
In a recent investor call, Nutrien reported that its Ag Solutions Digital Hub exceeded its annual target of $500 million in sales by achieving $700 million in just six months. Buoyed by this success, the company is investing more than $50 million annually on digital initiatives in North America and soon beyond. Even so, Wall…
The automotive industry in China has been the largest in the world measured by automobile unit production since 2008. After more than 30 years of rapid and continuous growth, auto manufacturers are staring at a new reality in which passenger car sales are on the decline and market fundamentals are shifting from the sale of internal combustion engine cars…
ADI Chemical Market Resources sees the ongoing pandemic and the commodity price crash impacting the petrochemical industry in several ways including the following: Demand disruptions from the broad economic collapse, Feedstock volatility and margin pressures, Feedstock supply and product demand imbalances Declining sales volumes Significant capital spending cuts Shift to lower feedstock volatility via crude-to-chemicals…
Hot Melt Adhesives – growing demand for polyolefin elastomer-based HMAs Hot melt adhesives (HMAs) are 100% solid thermoplastic polymer-based formulations. They are typically are applied hot at their softening temperature and allowed to solidify by cooling to room temperature to provide necessary adhesion between two different materials. Once applied and brought in contact with the…
ADI Chemical Market Resources (ADI CMR) recently presented a webinar reviewing key trends and sharing an outlook for the global chemical industry. Uday Turaga shared research and insights from theADI CMR team’s research and consulting work. Since ADI’s acquisition of Chemical Market Resources in late 2017, ADI CMR has completed more than 25 projects across…
Super-hard materials are materials above a certain level of hardness beyond which traditional methods of component manufacturing such as milling and turning cannot be utilized. Some examples of these super-hard materials are tungsten carbide, diamond, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, and high-speed steel. Hardness and toughness are often seen as similar material properties but they are…
Global demand for polyolefins increased annually at 3.7%, from 68 million metric tons per year (MMtpy) in 1997 to 160 MMtpy in 2017. This growth has been accompanied by a significant geographical shift in demand, which has gone from North America and Europe constituting over 50% global demand to China and Asia-pacific being the major…