Kuwait Petroleum Corp. is inviting investors to build a chemical plant that would make maleic anhydride out of n-butene supplied by the nationally owned oil company. Maleic anhydride is a crystalline substance used to make lubricant additives such as corrosion inhibitors and detergents, and also to make plastic resins, polyesters and other materials.

Like many others, the lubricants industry is facing growing demands to operate in ways defined as sustainable. A special report from the August issue of Lubes’n’Greases discusses what sustainability means for lubricant suppliers, existing and looming policies that could affect the industry and ways that lubes businesses can become more sustainable.

Liqui-Moly reported an 8 percent increase in sales for the first half of this year. The German company said that exporting to many countries helped it weather such factors as rising raw material costs, discontinuing its Russian business because of the war in Ukraine and losing sales in China during restrictive pandemic lockdown periods there.

OQ Chemicals recently announced it would switch to electricity from renewable sources as part of its path to becoming a climate-neutral company. OQ Chemicals’ products that are used in production of lubricants include carboxylic acids, poly alcohols and amines. The company said it will purchase green power certificates while converting energy sources at some sites.