Page 155 - CW E-Magazine (9-4-2024)

News from Abroad

WATER DESALINATION
LG Chem bags RO membranes contract in Morocco

South Korea LG Chem has inked plants in the Jorf Lasfar complex
a deal to supply around 18,000 reserve and Safi in Morocco since 2022.
osmosis (RO) membranes to an industrial The expansion project, Jorf Wave
complex in Morocco by May. 2 Desalination Plant, is integral to
OCP Group’s water sustainabi-
LG Water Solutions, LG Chem’s lity programme aimed to alleviate
business unit specialising in water treat- water stress in the region, where
ment and RO membranes, secured the desalination via RO has become
supply order of seawater RO (SWRO) a proven method of sustainably
membrane elements through a local EPC managing water resources.
for an expansion of a seawater desalina-
tion facility at the Jorf Lasfar industrial Last year, LG Water Solutions
complex operated by Moroccan phos- the complex and supply potable water to supplied over 10,000 RO membrane ele-
phate giant, OCP Group. around 1.5-million people in the towns of ments to the Citic Guoan project, China’s
Safi and El Jadida, the company said in a largest salt lake-based lithium carbonate
Located ~20-km south of El-Jadida, statement. production site. The project owner,
on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, the site TUS-Qingyuan, aims to produce 20-ktpa
is currently the world’s largest fertiliser The Jorf Lasfar complex produces of battery-grade lithium carbonate,
complex. 4-mtpa of rock phosphate and more than enough to build batteries for nearly
10-mtpa of fertilisers. 500,000 electric vehicles (EVs). The RO
The contracted RO membranes will membranes are crucial in TUS-Qingyuan’s
be used to desalinate 246,000-m of sea LG Water Solutions has been sup- advanced lithium extraction techno-
3
water per day. The desalinated water will plying RO membrane elements through logy, which recovers lithium from salt
be used for industrial purposes within several global EPCs for modular SWRO lakes.

REUSE IN CONSUMER PACKAGING
Dow and P&G join forces to develop new plastic

recycling technology

Dow and FMCG major, Procter & The technology aims to deliver decades of expertise in materials
Gamble (P&G), have announced a high quality post-consumer recycled science, manufacturing capabilities
joint development agreement (JDA) to (PCR) polymer with a lower green- and large-scale supply chain manage-
create a new recycling technology. The house gas emissions footprint than ment. These areas of expertise will be
vision is to enable efficient conversion fossil-based polyethylene. P&G anti- important in the development of this
of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging into cipates using this PCR polymer in new recycling technology that can be
recycled polyethylene with near-virgin their packaging, thereby enabling a deployed at commercial manufactur-
quality and a low greenhouse gas emis- path to circularity which helps maxi- ing scale.
sions footprint. mise resource utility and reduces
materials treated as waste. Both Dow and P&G have bold
The development programme will ambitions to accelerate circularity. Dow
focus on using dissolution technology The partnership begins imme- has a sustainability target to ‘Transform
to recycle a broad range of plastic ma- diately and is expected to run until the Waste’ and commercialise 3-mt of
terials with a focus on polyethylene and commercialisation. circular and renewable solutions by
targeting post-household plastic waste 2030, and P&G’s vision is to use 100%
(especially rigids, flexible and multi-layer In addition to the patented tech- consumer packaging designed to be
packaging, which are harder to recycle). nologies, both Dow and P&G bring recycled or reusable by 2030.

Chemical Weekly April 9, 2024 155

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