CESIO Surfactants Conference, Vienna Austria, June 5 – 8th
This previously quadrennial event, altered its schedule and took place 3 years after Paris before settling into a biennial rhythm going forward (so, next one is 2013 in Barcelona). Incidentally, the next major conference in the surfactant world this year is now the First ICIS Asian Surfactants Conference, November 10th and 11th in Singapore. My company is co-producing as part of our conference business venture with ICIS.
At CESIO, I presented a paper at the Tuesday morning “Market Trends” session entitled “Biomass – a new feedstock value chain for surfactants”. It was quite well received. Most of the questions following the paper centered around cost effectiveness of the current technology and whether or not this was a high cost niche. My answer; there is no green premium when it comes to this segment. The market has a need for a viable, third leg to the value chain (as outlined in our recent INFORM article) and cost competitiveness is essential.
Some highlights of themes emerging and events happening at the convention:
First a couple of announcements that hit the wire during the conference:
- Rhodia announced a JV with Sibur in Russia for the production of surfactants. It is expected that Sibur will supply ethylene oxide to the JV for the production of ethoxylates.
- Shell announced an intention to explore a world scale ethylene plant in the Appalachian region of the Northeastern US, taking advantage of the ethane rich, locally available Marcellus Shale gas deposits. The project is said to include derivatives, most likely polyethylene. This has significant relevance for the surfactant industry as, of course, a small part of this ethylene could be available for the production of ethylene oxide for use by ethoxylators. Elsewhere in this blog we has discussed the coming advantages for US based petrochemicals producers based on the use of shale gas derived ethane. Even now, North America is the second lowest cost region for ethylene manufacture, globally.
Some Conference Highlights:
- Henkel CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) discussed the diversity of their markets in Eastern Europe and introduced an index relating to how many minutes of work, on average, it took the average citizen in each of their markets to earn enough to buy a 400 g package of Persil detergent. The number ranged from 5 to 135, which underlines the marketing challenge even within a single region.
- Novozymes continues to be a huge presence at these types of events. Interesting that, at a surfactant event, one of the key participants is a company whose products enable the reduction of surfactant loading in cleaning formulations.
- The Battelle Institute gave an interesting analysis of the markets for laundry detergent in the US and Europe and the differences in formulations between the two regions. Lots of detail. One of the more interesting points is that European formulations, in general are more complex with a greater variety of ingredients. Should we read more “sophisticated” Europeans?... who’d a thunk it.
- Shell presentation on high active (90%) blends, helpfully dubbed “HAM” (high active materials), suggested a much higher reach for the shipment of surfactant from integrated sulfonation and ethoxylation sites to detergent manufacturers.
- EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) got some coverage at the conference. Not only affirming it’s status as the next big thing in surfactants (a status held by EOR for at least 25 years), but also evidencing some considerable expenditure of time and money in the field. I was particularly gratified to hear the proceedings of our very own first ICIS World Surfactant Conference quoted by a speaker – and by none other than a BASF speaker, Dr. Alfred Ruland of BASF Germany. Dr. Ruland cited Pascal Juery’s comments at our conference around the importance of EOR to Rhodia. Nice to see.
- Methyl Ester Ethoxylates got some heavy billing from both Huntsman and KLK. Elsewhere, including on the sidelines, Methyl Ester Sulfonates continued to generate buzz as the production technology offered by, among others, Ballestra continues to establish itself with multiple players, especially in palm-rich Southeast Asia.
- An interesting statistic put forward by Huntsman is that they have supplied 15,000 MT of Methyl Ester Ethoxylate to the North American heavy duty laundry market last year.
- Solazyme made its debut at the conference (and in fact the debut of the entire “new renewables” industry), with a well-attended and thought provoking paper. The company introduced its technology and made its case (very well) that this technology is slated to have a major impact on the surfactant value chain. I especially liked the picture of the Solazyme railcar – emphasizing the point that “yes we are at commercial scale here!”. Nicely done by Tim and his colleagues.
- Oxiteno, continued to step onto the world stage with a nice survey of the Brazilian and Latin American markets presented by Andre Polo. Some interesting nuggets included the 30 Million Hectares of land devoted to Oil Palm and the 30 Billion barrels of crude oil reserves in Brazil. Another fascinating statistic is that Brazil is the largest market for hair conditioner in the world. Yes, Brazilian women really care about how they look!
- A member of the Japan surfactant industry association gave a very detailed survey of the surfactant market in Japan. One thing that struck me, although I sort of knew it already, is that the market there has been shrinking yearly since 1990!
So, overall, a great meeting with lots of informal interactions around the exhibit hall and at lunches and dinners in Vienna. The closing event at the outstanding “Rathaus” (Vienna’s townhall) was really first class. My gut tells me that the speaker line-up at the next CESIO will include many other renewables companies, Solazyme having blazed a trail there. Further discussion of EOR and of the new value chain co-operations emerging around integrated ethylene, EO, ethoxylation and sulfonation sites, especially in North America will also likely be featured.
That’s almost it for the Summer for me on the speaking circuit. I have one more paper to give at the ACS 5th International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry in Washington DC June 21-23. Next stops will include Cartagena, Colombia in October (AOCS) and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in November (PIPOC) and of course, the First ICIS Asian Surfactants Conference, November 10th and 11th in Singapore . Stay tuned to this blog or to our Twitterfeed (@NeilABurns) for information as it becomes available.