Low-carbon ethylene chain deal

Clariant has agreed a deal to source ethylene with a lower carbon footprint from Austrian petrochemicals firm OMV. This, the company said, comes in response to increasing consumer demand for more sustainable options and will help both it and OMV to meet their sustainability targets.

Clariant has been offering segregated biobased ethoxylates through its Indian operation since 2022. It now wishes to extend this to the wider ethylene oxide derivatives portfolio while also strengthening the supply chain by producing “in Europe, for Europe”.

OMV began renewable and circular production of chemicals and chemical feedstock at its refinery at Burghausen, Germany, in 2021, and more recently at Schwechat, Austria. Its capacity for sustainable products is now about 200,000 tonnes/year and is expected to rise to 1.4 by 2030.

The two firms added that they plan to explore and develop new strategies to meet sustainability targets in the ethylene supply chain. As part of this, they will share their research findings, adopt a lifecycle assessment methodology for unified approaches and define detailed CO₂ reduction roadmaps. This will include joint analysis of collaboration potential for the ethanol-to-ethylene technology.