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(downstreamtoday) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. is
adding to the petrochemical party. The Woodlands-based company on Monday
announced it would build in Baytown the world's largest plant, by capacity, for
making a key component of plastic resin: 1-hexene.
The plant, which Chevron Phillips will begin building this year, is scheduled
to start operations in the first quarter of 2014 and have an annual production
capacity of 250,000 metric tons, or 551 million pounds, according to a company
announcement.
The plant is the latest industry project aimed at taking advantage of newly
tapped supplies of natural gas liquids that are expected to be abundant and
cheap amid a boom in production from shale.
The chemical 1-hexene, derived from ethylene, is used to manufacture
polyethylene, which in turn is commonly converted into film, pipe, detergent
bottles, and food and beverage containers.
Ethylene itself is derived from ethane, for which production has grown
substantially in the United States because of advances in drilling techniques
that have tapped into large, cheap supplies of natural gas liquids. |
