MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is planning to expand Dahej Manufacturing Division (DMD), a petrochemical and downstream manufacturing unit, with an investment of Rs 5,100 crore (USD700 million), according to Kemicalinfo.
"Dahej petrochemical manufacturing facility is proposing to set up the new plants and facilities, which includes manufacturing of Ethylene Dichloride (EDC), CHDM, PET-G, establishing New incinerator in VCM unit, separation of hydrogen as a product in CA plant and CO2 recovery unit in EO-EG unit. These plants will be located within the existing RIL DMD spread over 700 hectares," the company said.
EDC is used a raw material for manufacturing Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM), which is used in making polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
The proposed EDC plant will meet the feedstock requirement of an initial plant which will produce 500,000 tons per year of Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM)/ polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The Dahej site has an existing 360,000 tons per year of VCM/PVC capacity and has approvals to build a new VCM/PVC plant of 1.2 million tons per year capacity.
According to the company, DMD will produce 200,000 ton per year of PET-G post expansion of the facility. PET-G or Polyethylene Terephthalate (with a glycol modification) is among the most common polymers used currently. It is used to make water bottles, food packets and other common plastic items.
DMD will also produce 50,000 ton per year of Cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM), a key raw material used for producing PET-G as well as various other polymers. Amidst a global shift towards renewable energy and electric mobility, RIL is implementing a strategy to transform itself from a primary producer of fuels to chemicals.
In November 2019, RIL announced its plan on an oil-to-chemical strategy that involves setting up crude-to-chemical projects adjacent to the existing Jamnagar refinery and petrochemical complex at a cost of USD9.75 billion.
The company also plans to remove production bottlenecks at its flagship Vadodara Manufacturing Division (VMD) at a cost of Rs 2,270 crore (USD319 million).
RIL’s petrochemical production rose to 9.9 million ton during the quarter ended December 2019, as compared to 9.7 million ton produced in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
As MRC reported earlier, RIL undertook an unplanned shutdown at its PVC plant in Hazira in H2 December 2018, owing to technical issues. The unplanned outage was expected to remain in force for around two weeks. Located at Hazira in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the plant has a production capacity of 360,000 mt/year.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, January prices of Russian emulsions and suspensions for domestic consumers remained at the level of December. Russia's estimated consumption of unmixed PVC was about 972,920 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. The Russian emulsion and suspension PVC markets showed an increase in supplies. Last month's estimated consumption of SPVC (excluding exports to Belarus) decreased to 64,430 tonnes from 67,430 tonnes in November.
Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company produces polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and other petrochemical products.
MRC