MOSCOW (MRC) -- Linde Engineering and MOL Group have signed a contract for the digitalization of MOL’s steam cracker plant operations at MOL Petrochemicals in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Linde will deploy its technology and expertise to help MOL optimize the plant operations and improve its energy efficiency. Linde Engineering will install the software solution Linde Virtual Furnace on MOL’s steam crackers. The solution allows operators to benchmark actual operations against the optimum in real-time. MOL steam cracker plant’s virtual twin will monitor the plant’s operation performance and provide guidance to optimize production efficiency in real-time. As a result, Linde’s virtual steam cracker plant will help MOL to increase capacity and product quality while reducing energy consumption and emissions.
MOL selected Linde Engineering based on its proven experience gained through operating more than 1,000 process plants across 80 countries, the long-standing relationship since 1972 and the state-of-theart steam cracking technologies. Linde Engineering built MOL’s first steam cracker plant in Tiszaujvaros. Based on this successful project, the two companies established a close long-term cooperation. Linde Engineering was in charge of the plant’s reconstruction and lifetime extension, and in 2005, built the second steam cracker plant for MOL.
As per MRC, MOL Petrochemicals Company (formerly TVK, part of the MOL Group), the only Hungarian producer of olefins and polyolefins, has postponed the completion of its polyol plant until the second half of 2022. The company notes that as a result of the delay, total capital expenditures for the construction of a 200,000 tonnes per year facility could rise to around EUR1.3bn (initially EUR1.2bn). The development of the project was hampered by the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.
As MRC informed before, MOL Petrochemicals Company (formerly known as TVK, part of the MOL Group), the only Hungarian producer of olefins and polyolefins, announced force majeure on the supply of polypropylene (PP) from plant No. 4 at the petrochemical complex in Tiszaujvaros (Tiszaujvaros, Hungary) on 23 September 2019.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MOL Group is an integrated, international oil and gas company with its headquarters in Budapest, with an international and dynamic workforce of 25,000 in more than 30 countries and an industrial history of more than 100 years. MOL's exploration and production activities are supported by more than 80 years of experience in the hydrocarbon industry. It currently has extraction activities in 9 countries and has research assets in 14 countries. MOL Group operates three refineries and two petrochemical plants under integrated supply chain management in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, and its retail network includes 1,940 filling stations in 10 countries in Central and South-Eastern Europe.
MRC