MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell announced construction on its propylene oxide (PO) and tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) plant has surpassed 20 percent completion, with work shifting from foundation and infrastructure construction to vertical assembly, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
A key milestone of the project’s progress was marked by the recent delivery of a 25-story-tall, 601-ton distillation tower, which will be the tallest piece of equipment to be installed.
"We’ve moved another step closer to delivering our PO/TBA project, with construction taking place simultaneously at two of our sites," said Dan Coombs, LyondellBasell executive vice president for Global Manufacturing, Projects and Refining. "This project creates a long-term value for our investors and we remain on track to bring our largest PO/TBA facility in the world online in 2021."
The first pieces of structural steel are being safely installed at both construction sites, and installation of tanks, cooling towers and the flare will begin soon at the Channelview site.
"As our infrastructure work wraps up, we’ll soon begin to see the plants emerge from both construction sites as these large pieces of equipment are installed," said Joe Dorsch, PO/TBA project director. "We are one year into construction and our team has safely achieved several key milestones, which speaks to their talent and dedication."
Once in operation, the PO/TBA plant will produce 1 billion pounds (470,000 metric tons) of PO and 2.2 billion pounds (1 million metric tons) of TBA annually.
Based on an analysis by the Greater Houston Partnership, LyondellBasell’s USD2.4 billion PO/TBA project is estimated to generate more than USD450 million in tax benefits for the county, school district, community college and other local taxing districts over a 10-year period. The total project will create more than 2,200 construction jobs at the peak of construction and 160 permanent positions.
As MRC wrote previously, LyondellBasell has recetnly announced that Hyundai Chemical, a joint venture between Hyundai Oilbank and Lotte Chemical, has selected LyondellBasell's Lupotech T process technology for a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers plant to be built in South Korea. The facility, to be built in Daesan, will have 300,000 t/y of capacity. No additional details of the project were available.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC