From the Sector

Just under a year ago, the EREMA Group started to repurpose the premises of Gruber & Kaja in St. Marien, which they took over as a reserve site in January 2021. In the meantime, a lot is going on there.

"When this site came up for sale, it only took us a few days to decide to buy the 40,000m² plot, including the workshop hall, which has an area of 15,000m²," says Manfred Hackl, CEO of EREMA Group GmbH. Around EUR 20 million was invested in the purchase, as the site offered the opportunity to increase production capacity by 60 percent in the immediate vicinity of the company headquarters in Ansfelden.

The fact that this site is now already being used so intensively was not envisaged at the time, because at the end of 2020 the company was just completing the expansion to their headquarters in Ansfelden, involving an investment of around EUR 17 million. 20 new jobs have already been created as a result, with a further 30 to follow in the next few months. By the time the new site is completed, the total number of new jobs will be up to 150.

This development is due to the high demand for the EREMA Group's plastics recycling technologies and the trend towards ever-larger recycling plants. "Just in December, we delivered a VACUREMA® system to Brazil that will produce up to 40,000 metric tonnes of recycled PET (rPET) per year. That is equivalent to recycling around 1.1 billion 1.5-litre PET bottles. This site provides the perfect conditions for building this scale of machine," says Hackl.

Markus Achleitner, Upper Austria's Minister for the Economy, was also impressed by this development during his visit to St. Marien. "There is hardly any other region in the world that focuses as closely on materials expertise and the circular economy as in Upper Austria. We want to fully exploit this potential with our #upperVISION2030 business and research strategy. EREMA is an important driver in this industry. It makes me all the more pleased that the company owners have once again confirmed their commitment to Upper Austria as a business location, to the circular economy and to the employees by developing this site," says Achleitner. "This investment is an important positive signal for the entire region of Upper Austria location, especially in the current challenging times, and all the more so for creating 150 jobs," he emphasises.

New site milestones
Since January 2021, part of the existing office and hall space at Kunststoffstraße 1, as the site's address is now called, has been occupied by companies and departments of the EREMA Group. UMAC GmbH, a subsidiary specialising in servicing and trading previously owned recycling machines, which was severely short of space at its main location in Styria, moved its entire production and administration to St. Marien. Large areas of hall storage space were adapted for both UMAC and EREMA GmbH. The paint shop was also relocated from Ansfelden to St. Marien, and another hall was equipped for building large-scale VACUREMA® systems - these are systems used all over the world to recycle PET bottles. Production in this workshop is now being ramped up step by step.
Space that is not being used in St. Marien over the medium-term will be rented out. An industry-related firm has already moved in, and another 300 m² of office space is currently still available.

Albarrie – a major player in North America’s industrial nonwovens industry – is now benefiting from one of the first Monforts Montex stenter installations equipped with the full range of MonforClean heat recovery and exhaust air purification technologies.

With the new three-chamber Montex stenter at its plant in Barrie, Ontario, the Canadian company is treating specialised needlepunched nonwovens up to 4mm thick. These have applications in a wide range of filter media and performance fabrics.

The new Montex is enabling Albarrie to heat set and dry its materials to produce denser, higher quality fabrics which can also be finished and delivered to customers more rapidly.

Across timezones
It took a crew of skilled millwrights, electricians and product specialists to build the line which was delivered in 11 shipping containers to Albarrie’s production facility. The line was originally scheduled to be fully operational in the Spring of 2020, but the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic inevitably led to several delays during the start-up and commissioning process.

Energy savings
The Albarrie Montex line’s MonforClean capabilities include an air-to-air cross flow heat exchanger and an electrostatic precipitator providing the ability to purify the exhaust air and to recover energy to a maximum of 22,500 cubic metres of air per hour, resulting in a radical reduction in the conventional heat supply required. The MonforClean was developed in cooperation with partner KMA Umwelttechnik, based in Königswinter, Germany.

The fully automated system is powered by a Siemens SPS S7 controller and KP 700 touch panel from which the recycled energy can be continuously monitored and savings calculated.

The three-chamber Montex stenter is fitted with the latest Monforts Qualitex 800 PLC control system with WebUI, providing ease of operation, a full operating cost overview and maintenance monitoring.

• More than 30 leading pioneers of the chemical and material sector welcome the latest political papers from Brussels, Berlin and Düsseldorf

The political situation for renewable carbon from biomass, CO2 and recycling for the defossilisation of the chemical and materials industry has begun to shift fundamentally in Europe. For the first time, important policy papers from Brussels and Germany take into consideration that the term decarbonisation alone is not sufficient, and that there are important industrial sectors with a permanent and even growing carbon demand. Finally, the need for a sustainable coverage of this carbon demand and the realisation of sustainable carbon cycles have been identified on the political stage. They are elemental to the realisation of a sustainable chemical and derived materials industry.

The goal is to create sustainable carbon cycles. This requires comprehensive carbon management of renewable sources, which includes carbon from biomass, carbon from Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) – the industrial use of CO2 as an integral part – as well as mechanical and chemical recycling. And only the use of all alternative carbon streams enables a true decoupling of the chemical and materials sector from additional fossil carbon from the ground. Only in this way can the chemical industry stay the backbone of modern society and transform into a sustainable sector that enables the achievement of global climate goals. The Renewable Carbon Initiative’s (RCI) major aim is to support the smart transition from fossil to renewable carbon: utilising carbon from biomass, CO2 and recycling instead of additional fossil carbon from the ground. This is crucial because 72% of the human-made greenhouse gas emissions are directly linked to additional fossil carbon. The RCI supports all renewable carbon sources available, but the political support is fragmented and differs between carbon from biomass, recycling or carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). Especially CCU has so far not been a strategic objective in the Green Deal and Fit-for-55.

This will change fundamentally with the European Commission's communication paper on “Sustainable Carbon Cycles” published on 15 December. The position in the paper represents an essential step forward that shows embedded carbon has reached the political mainstream – supported by recent opinions from members of the European parliament and also, apparently, by the upcoming IPCC assessment report 6. Now, CCU becomes a recognised and credible solution for sustainable carbon cycles and a potentially sustainable option for the chemical and  material industries. Also, in the political discussions in Brussels, the term “defossilation” is appearing more and more often, complementing or replacing the term decarbonisation in those areas where carbon is indispensable. MEP Maria da Graça Carvahlo is among a number of politicians in Brussels who perceive CCU as an important future industry, putting it on the political map and creating momentum for CCU. This includes the integration of CCU into the new Carbon Removal Regime and the Emission Trading System (ETS).

As the new policy documents are fully in line with the strategy of the RCI, the more than 30 member companies of the initiative are highly supportive of this new development and are ready to support policy-maker with data and detailed suggestions for active support and the realisation of sustainable carbon cycles and a sound carbon management. The recent political papers of relevance are highlighted in the following.

Brussels: Communication paper on “Sustainable Carbon Cycles”
On 15 December, the European Commission has published the communication paper “Sustainable Carbon Cycles” . For the first time, the importance of carbon in different industrial sectors is clearly stated. One of the key statements in the paper is the full recognition of CCU for the first time as a solution for the circular economy, which includes CCU-based fuels as well. The communication paper distinguishes between bio-based CO2, fossil CO2 and CO2 from direct air capture when addressing carbon removal and it also announces detailed monitoring of the different CO2 streams. Not only CCU, but also carbon from the bioeconomy is registered as an important pillar for the future. Here, the term carbon farming has been newly introduced, which refers to improved land management practices that result in an increase of carbon sequestration in living biomass, dead organic matter or soils by enhancing carbon capture or reducing the release of carbon. Even though the list of nature-based carbon storage technologies is non-exhaustive in our view, we strongly support the paper’s idea to deem sustainable land and forest management as a basis for the bioeconomy more important than solely considering land use as a carbon sink. Surprisingly, chemical recycling, which is also an alternative carbon source that substitutes additional fossil carbon from the ground (i.e. carbon from crude oil, natural gas or from coal), is completely absent from the communication paper.

Berlin: Coalition paper of the new German Government: “Dare more progress – alliance for freedom, justice and sustainability”
The whole of Europe is waiting to see how the new German government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals will shape the German climate policy. The new reform agenda focuses in particular on solar and wind energy as well as especially hydrogen. Solar energy is to be expanded to 200 GW by 2030 and two percent of the country's land is to be designated for onshore wind energy. A hydrogen grid infrastructure is to be created for green hydrogen, which will form the backbone of the energy system of the future – and is also needed for e-fuels and sustainable chemical industry, a clear commitment to CCU. There is a further focus on the topic of circular economy and recycling. A higher recycling quota and a product-specific minimum quota for the use of recyclates and secondary raw materials should be established at European level. In the coalition paper, there is also a clear commitment to chemical recycling to be found. A significant change for the industry is planned to occur in regards to the so-called “plastic tax” of 80 cents per kilogram of non-recycled plastic packaging. This tax has been implemented by the EU, but most countries are not passing on this tax to the manufacturers and distributors, or only to a limited extent. The new German government now plans to fully transfer this tax over to the industry.

Düsseldorf: Carbon can protect the climate – Carbon Management Strategy North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
Lastly, the RCI highly welcomes North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW, Germany) as the first region worldwide to adopt a comprehensive carbon management strategy, a foundation for the transformation from using additional fossil carbon from the ground to the utilisation of renewable carbon from biomass, CO2 and recycling. For all three alternative carbon streams, separate detailed strategies are being developed to achieve the defossilisation of the industry. This is all the more remarkable as North Rhine-Westphalia is the federal state with the strongest industry in Germany, in particular the chemical industry. And it is here, of all places, that a first master plan for the conversion of industry from fossil carbon to biomass, CO2 and recycling is implemented. If successful, NRW could become a global leader in sustainable carbon
management and the region could become a blueprint for many industrial regions.

During an expansive, three-day Electronics For Imaging, Inc. open house this month at the company’s EFI™ Reggiani industrial textile printer facility, textile and apparel manufacturers witnessed first-hand the market-leading innovations that provide users with new opportunities. The December open house, which drew more than 70 attendees from over 23 different European, South American, and Middle Eastern countries, featured informative sessions with product experts on a diverse range of topics, covering new and trending market applications for textile manufacturers.

Attendees witnessed live demonstrations of eight advanced digital printers during the open house, including the new EFI Reggiani HYPER, EFI Reggiani TERRA Silver scanning/multi-pass printer, and EFI Reggiani BLAZE as well as the EFI Reggiani BOLT – the award-winning single-pass offering that is the one of the fastest digital textile printers.

EFI Reggiani HYPER – a fast scanning digital printer
The new EFI Reggiani HYPER is a scanning printer available in 1.8-metre, 2.4-metre or 3.4-metre widths. The Reggiani HYPER model targets the industrial high-speed segment of the multi-pass textile printing sector.

With an up to eight-colour configuration, it prints at speeds up to 13 linear metres per minute in two-pass production mode. The new printer is suitable for high-quality production on knitted or woven fabrics and is designed with smart technology that enables it to be integrated into Industry 4.0 projects.

Sustainable direct-to-textile printing with the EFI Reggiani TERRA Silver
The new-version TERRA Silver printer is part of EFI’s complete TERRA line-up of pigment ink printer solutions. It allows print service providers to enter the world of industrial textile with a short, smart and green production process.
The printer also features:

• A new recirculating ink system for superior reliability and minimum maintenance
• Several printing modes to ensure maximum flexibility in terms of design capability
• New, real-time image processing that eliminates time spent in image pre-calculations
• A user friendly, intuitive interface
• A more-efficient polymerisation process that takes place as printed textile goes through the printer’s on-board dryer.

EFI Reggiani BLAZE, an ideal entry solution for industrial textile printing
The EFI Reggiani BLAZE printer is designed to give textile companies the opportunity to enter the digital textile printing market with a compact solution. The new, 1.8-metre-wide printer offers an innovative, low-maintenance, continuous recirculation ink system equipped with a level sensor and degassing as well as a print head crash protective system for longer printhead life and superior uptime.

The upgraded EFI Reggiani BOLT – one of the fastest digital textile printers
In 2021, the EFI Reggiani BOLT received a combination of hardware and software enhancements that minimise artifacts, compensating for missing nozzles that may occur over time and enhancing uniformity to deliver smoother solid colours. The upgrade also delivers improved quality and smoother gradients, plus it enables faster printhead replacement and drastically increases file processing speed by up to 200% for large, complex files.

International technology group ANDRITZ has received an order from Fouani, Nigeria, to supply two baby diaper lines for its facilities in Lagos. The lines will produce a wide range of diaper products with absorbent cores made of pulp and SAP (super absorbent polymer). Start-up is scheduled for 2022.

Fouani Nigeria Ltd was established in 2001 as a subsidiary of the Fouani Group of Companies. The company has grown to be a pioneer and the sole distributor of LG, Hisense, and Maxi products in Nigeria, Africa, thus winning several awards for its proactive market penetration.

The two baby diaper lines feature the most advanced forming technology for the absorbent core and SAP dosing.The lines are equipped with a web tensioning control system and quality check devices to ensure a high level of production quality. In addition, ANDRITZ will provide services for installation and start-up of the machines.

To ensure that pets are also well equipped in terms of product safety, quality and durability of their cuddly blankets, cushions or favorite toys, the textile testing service provider Hohenstein has established its quality label for tested pet supplies. After all, the number of pets in private households is growing every year, and for many of us, our animal roommates count as full members of the family and are cared for accordingly.

The label is explicitly designed for textile products such as blankets or pillows for sleeping areas, dog clothing, mats or even horse blankets. It provides consumers with clear product information on product safety, quality and durability, and also offers home/pets and their owners security against unwanted residues of chemical substances. Beyond its standard physical tests, the quality label can be flexibly extended: depending on the intended use, product properties such as chew resistance, scratch resistance, outdoor suitability, water repellence, waterproofness or air permeability play a major role in ensuring that pets feel completely comfortable.

The Hohenstein quality label Tested Pet Supply is an independent proof of quality and joins the ranks of the existing Hohenstein quality labels.

• The leading denim ingredient brand joins lablaco’s virtual reality Circular Fashion Summit 2021 as an Innovation Partner

ISKO continues to reaffirm its commitment towards circularity by participating as an Innovation Partner in the Circular Fashion Summit 2021 by lablaco. The summit will bring together leaders of change across design, technology and sustainability to share knowledge and take action towards creating a circular future for fashion. The event will be held in a VR version of the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris and will take place on 9-12 December.

ISKO’s approach to circularity is built on creating a future where no virgin resources are needed to produce beautiful durable and high performing woven fabrics To achieve this, the leading denim ingredient brand is working to remove its reliance on fossil fuels and virgin materials by employing only renewable energy and by setting the challenging target of using 100% recycled or reused materials.

This impressive goal is possible thanks to the cutting edge technologies ISKO is working with such as a one of a kind process which fully separates and recycles cotton and polyester blends at scale, and collaborative partnerships with MoRe Research that are aimed at discovering new possibilities for cellulose based materials. ISKO’s new generation of R TWO™50+ fabrics are also playing a role in moving towards this goal. E ngineered for nature’ they use a minimum of 50% pre and post consumer recycled blend reducing carbon and water footprints by 45% and 65% respectively, and are all GRS certified ISKO also believes that the transition to a circular economy cannot happen without addressing the impact on biodiversity and our ecology. Tackling the over-sourcing of raw materials is key, as the extraction of new natural resources and the impact on carbon emissions in processing them contributes to more than 90% of biodiversity loss.

Stahl, an active proponent of responsible chemistry, today announces that – by the end of Q2 2022 – it will extend its GHG reduction targets to cover Scope 3 emissions. This step underlines Stahl’s commitment to aligning its strategy with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement goals, updated at the recent COP26 in Glasgow.

Between 2015 and 2020 Stahl reduced its Scope 1 and 2 (direct) GHG emissions by 37%, and has committed to a further 2% reduction each year to 2030. Scope 3 emissions cover all the indirect emissions that can occur in a company’s value chain, including raw material acquisition, transportation, and the end-of-life impact of its products. By focusing on Scope 3 emissions, Stahl is committing to de-fossilizing its supply chain and ensuring further accountability for its total environmental impact.

Michael Costello, Stahl Group ESG Director: “Only by focusing on reducing Scope 3 emissions can we accurately align our de-fossilization strategy with the global goal of limiting global average temperature increase to 1.5°C, as agreed at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the COP26 in Glasgow. We look forward to working with partners across our industry and value chain to make this happen.”

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) reported a strong 3Q 2021 performance amid record production volumes. The company maintained its positive outlook for the rest of the year and 2022, noting caution as headwinds including higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions weigh against resurgent consumer demand.

IVL reported EBITDA of US$478 million in Q3 versus US$552 million in the previous quarter and US$240 million a year earlier. Production volumes reached 3.73 million metric tons, a record, as the global recovery drove consumer demand for IVL’s products.

As the global economy recovers from the pandemic, consumer appetite and increasing Brent crude oil prices are testing supply chains and driving a commodity boom, with manufacturers running at full capacity. This has driven increases in freight prices and a shortage of materials.

Still, IVL posted a solid YTD performance, ending the first nine months of 2021 with EBITDA of US$ 1,512 million, up 123% YoY. The Integrated Oxides & Derivatives (IOD) segment will start to reap the full benefits of the hot commissioning of the Lake Charles gas cracker (IVOL) in Q4 and beyond, as well as continued advantaged shale gas economics.

In Q3, Project Olympus, the company’s cost saving and business transformation project, achieved US$63 million in efficiency gains, and is on track to achieve a total US$610 million of savings by 2023. IVL also implemented enhanced disclosures in governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, and launched a comprehensive financial policy and governance structure to accelerate environmentally driven projects.

IVL strengthened its Indorama Management Council (IMC) – the company’s highest operational management committee – by rotating experienced executives and adding the COOs of the Fibers and Integrated Oxides & Derivatives (IOD) segments. The appointments will help build the segments into self-sustaining organizations while also rotating expertise across the IMC.

3Q 2021 Performance Summary

• Consolidated Revenue of US$ 3,867M, an increase of 9% QoQ and 50% YoY
• EBITDA of US$ 478M in Q3 versus US$552 million, a decrease of 13% QoQ and an increase of 99% YoY
• Reported annualized EPS of THB 4.53 and core annualized EPS of THB 4.09

It looks like a normal shirt, but it has it all: The new SmartTex shirt uses integrated sensors to transfer physiological data from astronauts to Earth via a wireless communication network. In this way, the effects of the space environment on the human cardiovascular system will be evaluated and documented, especially with regard to long-term manned space missions. Developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in cooperation with DSI Aerospace Technology, the Medical Faculty of Bielefeld University and textile research partner Hohenstein, SmartTex will be tested for the first time as part of the Wireless Compose-2 (WICO2) project by German ESA astronaut Dr. Matthias Maurer, who will leave for his ‘Cosmic Kiss’ mission on the International Space Station (ISS) for six months on October 30, 2021.

"We were already able to gain valuable insights into the interaction of the body, clothing and climate under microgravity conditions during the previous projects Spacetex (2014) and Spacetex2 (2018)," explains Hohenstein Senior Scientific Expert Dr. Jan Beringer. The insights provided at the time by the mission of ESA astronaut Dr. Alexander Gerst have now been directly incorporated into the development of the new SmartTex shirt at Hohenstein. "Matthias Maurer can wear his tailor-made shirt comfortably on his body during his everyday work on the International Space Station. For this, we used his body measurements as the basis for our cut development and the production of the shirt. We integrated the necessary sensors as well as data processing and communication modules into the shirt's cut in such a way that they interfere as little as possible and are always positioned in the right place, regardless of the wearing situation. This is the prerequisite for reliably measuring the relevant physiological data." The SmartTex shirt is intended to provide a continuous picture of the vital functions of astronauts. This will be particularly relevant for future long-term manned space missions to the Moon and Mars.

For example, during the BEAT experiment (Ballistocardiography for Extraterrestrial Applications and long-Term missions), Matthias Maurer will be the first astronaut to wear a T-shirt equipped with sensors that measure his ballistocardiographic data such as pulse and relative blood pressure. For this purpose, the sensors were calibrated in the :envihab research facility at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne. Details on the contraction rate and opening and closing times of the heart valves, which are normally only accessible via sonography or computer tomography, can also be read from the data material. The goal is to study the effects of the space environment on the human cardiovascular system. To be able to analyse these effects realistically, Matthias Maurer's ballistocardiographic data will be recorded before, during and after his stay on the ISS. For the future, a technology transfer of the SmartTex shirt for application in the field of fitness or even in telemedicine is conceivable.

Wireless Compose-2 (WICO2)
The project was planned and prepared by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and its cooperation partners DSI Aerospace Technology, Hohenstein and the University of Bielefeld. The wireless communication network reads sensor data and can determine the position of people and objects in space by propagation times of radio pulses. It is also available as a platform for several experiments on the ISS. The determined data is temporarily stored within the network and read out at regular intervals by the astronauts. These data packets are then transferred to Earth via the ISS link and analysed by the research teams. It can generate its own energy from artificial light sources via solar cells.

ESA astronaut Dr. Matthias Maurer in summer 2021 during preliminary talks on the Cosmic Kiss mission in DLR's :envihab in Cologne. © DLR

Sensors measure physiological data during a test run on Earth. © DLR

With the "SmartTex" shirt, astronauts can wear the necessary sensors comfortably on their bodies. © DLR

Dr. Jan Beringer, Hohenstein Senior Scientific Expert. © Hohenstein