Industry news

Here we bring you relevant news and economic stories from the bio chemical and chemical industries in general.

Matt Oliver :  Industry Editor, Telegraph.co.uk

25 June 2025 2:24pm BST

Saudi Aramco-owned Sabic said on Wednesday that it had decided to shut the Olefins 6 “cracker” facility in Teesside permanently following a review of “competitiveness”.  A subscription to the Telegraph may be required in order to read this story.

Major chemical factory shuts days after Starmer unveils Industrial Strategy

2 October 2025

We have competition - at least for feed stuff.

Ripcell.co.uk is another Scottish firm with a patented process that targets the waste product from the manufacture of whisky. The page title of their website home page is this:  'Ripcell – The most sustainable recycling process globally.'  Quite a statement. They claim that they 'transform the waste of today into the resources of tomorrow' and  'produce pharmaceuticals for the pharmaceutical industry and the electrical vehicle recycling industry'.

The company was founded in 2021 and claims already to be producing materials for sale.

View their promotional and technical video.

They differ from Celtic Renewables by extracting valuable platform chemicals from whisky waste which they separate, concentrate and purify, to get them to a specific chemical grade.  Then they supply them back to the pharmaceutical industries, food, cosmetics etc.  What's more, there is a second stage where they will use some of the chemical products to recycle end-of-life electrical vehicle batteries.