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Novel approach: A novel approach by INEOS Oxide enabled the business to not only make money from waste, but also helped to create a successful business for two other companies, and remove the equivalent of 60,000 cars from the road. The ball started rolling when INEOS initiated a search for companies with a possible interest in CO2 being created by its ethylene oxide plant in Belgium. “We make quite a lot of CO2, we knew that there must be good use that this could be put to but it was not our market,” said Hans Casier, CEO of INEOS Oxide, which already operated the most energy-efficient ethylene oxide unit in Europe. Rather than release this CO2 directly into the atmosphere, INEOS Oxide set out to find two companies which, together, could run a successful business, using the CO2 to make such things as soft, fizzy drinks and dry ice, which keeps food and drink fresh when it is transported from warehouses to shops. INEOS introduced Messer to Strombeek IJsfabriek, who went on to form a joint venture, running their new business, BECO2, from INEOS’ Zwijndrecht site in Antwerp. “We convinced them to build their own company instead of buying their CO2 from someone else,” said Hans. “They now take about 150,000 tons of CO2 and we share our costs and infrastructure.” At the press launch of the CO2 liquefaction unit, CO2 was taken straight from the ethylene oxide unit and made into sparkling water. “Everybody from the plant, who was there, stepped forward and grabbed a glass,” said Hans. “We offered it to the press and they all took a step backwards. It was a typical example of the wider community not knowing what chemicals are all about.” Pinpointing niche markets: You would not necessarily think that the Turkish construction industry would be the most obvious market to look to when developing a new, high performance insulation material, but it was for INEOS Styrenics. “The Turkish economy has been growing strongly in recent years and government building regulations have tightened following disastrous earthquakes in 1999 and 2011 in which many buildings collapsed,” said Rob Ingram, Chief Operating Officer at INEOS Styrenics. “There was a lot of building work going on and insulation became increasingly important as standards increased.” Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) in the form of white foam blocks is a leading material used for building insulation in Europe and was already widely used in Turkey. What was new for the Turkish market was a grey version of this materia
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