Communicator

Mass Balance has been completed.
Asset capacities and technologies have been identified.

#lyondellbasell  #munchmunster  #germany  #hostalen  #acp  #hdpe 

Chevron Phillips Chemical's Singapore HDPE complex | Credit: Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.

Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) has agreed to sell its entire stake in Chevron Phillips Singapore Chemicals (CPSC), a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) manufacturing joint venture located on Jurong Island, Singapore. The buyer, Aster Chemicals and Energy—a joint venture between Indonesia’s Chandra Asri and global commodities trader Glencore—will acquire CPChem’s 50% interest, alongside stakes held by Singapore’s EDB Investments and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed, and the deal is subject to customary closing conditions.

CPSC’s facility, with an annual capacity of 400,000 metric tons of HDPE, is a significant supplier to regional markets, sourcing ethylene feedstock from local partners. The plant employs around 150 people, who are expected to be offered positions with Aster to support a smooth transition and maintain operational continuity.

This divestment aligns with CPChem’s broader strategy to streamline its global asset base and focus on more integrated, higher-margin operations. Despite the sale, CPChem will maintain its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore, ensuring continued engagement with the region’s markets.

For Aster, this acquisition expands its manufacturing presence in Southeast Asia, complementing its recent purchase of Shell’s refinery and petrochemical assets in Singapore. The addition of CPSC’s HDPE plant is expected to strengthen Aster’s product portfolio and support its regional growth ambitions.

Overall, the transaction reflects ongoing changes in the global petrochemical sector, with companies seeking greater integration and efficiency. For Singapore, it highlights the continued attractiveness of Jurong Island as a site for advanced chemical manufacturing.

#capcg  #aster  #cpchem  #shell  #singapore  #refinery  #petrochemicals  #acquisition  #martech  #hdpe  #cpchem  #glencore 

Polyethylene plants with technologies and capacities have been added.


#lyondellbasell  #spheripol  #mitsui  #mitsuicx  #hdpe  #ldpe  #lottechemical  #malaysia 

Scaling New Heights: How Univation and Industry Rivals Are Redefining Polyethylene Production Capacity and Flexibility

The polyethylene (PE) production industry is experiencing a remarkable transformation, driven by advances in process technology and a relentless pursuit of scale and efficiency. At the center of this evolution is Univation Technologies, which recently announced a new UNIPOL™ PE Process design capable of producing 800,000 tonnes per year. This announcement marks a significant leap forward in the scale of single-line PE production, underscoring the company’s commitment to pushing technological boundaries while maintaining the flexibility to meet diverse market needs.

Univation’s journey toward ever-greater production capacities is a testament to decades of innovation. The company’s first UNIPOL™ PE plant, built in 1989, had a capacity of 225,000 tonnes per year, which at the time was a world record for a single-reactor PE facility. By 2016, the landscape had changed dramatically, with more than twenty operating lines each producing at least 400,000 tonnes per year, and single-line capacities reaching today 650,000 tonnes. The latest 800,000 tonnes per year design represents a substantial 23 percent increase over the previous benchmark, and the scale of this expansion is even more striking when considering that a 150,000-tonne increase is equivalent to the entire output of a typical reactor from the 1970s, highlighting the extraordinary progress that has been made in reactor engineering and process optimization.

A key differentiator for the UNIPOL™ PE Process is its product flexibility, enabled by a sophisticated portfolio of catalysts. By selecting from a dedicated line of catalysts, producers can seamlessly switch between a full spectrum of PE products, including metallocene-based resins, bimodal and unimodal HDPE, and LLDPE, all within the same reactor. This versatility allows manufacturers to respond rapidly to changing market demands without the need for costly and time-consuming reactor modifications, setting UNIPOL™ PE apart from many competing technologies, which often require dedicated lines for each product type.

The race for the world’s highest-capacity PE plant is intensifying, with Univation’s latest announcement coming on the heels of significant developments from Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem). CP Chem’s MarTech™ single-loop slurry process is now being deployed at a massive scale, with the Golden Triangle project in Texas featuring two HDPE lines, each with a capacity of 1,000,000 tonnes (1 million tonnes) per year, and a similar scale project with two HDPE lines, each with a capacity of 850,000 tonnes per year at the Ras Laffan Petrochemical Complex in Qatar. While CPChem has focused on maximizing HDPE production through specialized lines, Univation’s approach emphasizes both scale and product diversity, offering producers a compelling combination of flexibility and efficiency.

Achieving such immense reactor capacities is a feat of engineering that cannot be overstated. Scaling up polymerization reactors to handle up to 1 million tonnes per year and beyond requires overcoming significant technical challenges. Advanced cooling systems, real-time temperature controls, and innovative designs are essential to manage the intense heat and mixing requirements of high-throughput polymerization, as well as enhancing operational reliability and efficiency, ensuring that these mega-plants can run safely and consistently at peak performance.

In this rapidly evolving landscape, access to accurate and up-to-date technical information is more important than ever. Platforms like portfolio planning PLUS (ppPLUS) have emerged as invaluable resources for industry professionals, offering open-access, collaborative tools for tracking global PE plant deployments. Through ppPLUS, users can explore detailed information on PE plants worldwide, visualize production clusters, and contribute data on plant capacities, technology choices, and mass balances. This level of transparency and collaboration supports better decision-making and accelerates the adoption of best practices across the industry.

In summary, the latest advances in PE production technology, exemplified by Univation’s 800,000 tonnes per year UNIPOL™ PE Process and CP Chem’s MarTech mega-projects, are redefining the limits of scale and flexibility in polymer manufacturing. These achievements are not only a testament to the ingenuity of process engineers but also a harbinger of a more efficient, responsive, and interconnected global PE industry. As collaborative platforms like ppPLUS continue to democratize access to technical knowledge, the pace of innovation is likely to accelerate, shaping the future of plastics production for decades to come.

#hdpe  #lldpe  #bimodal  #metallocene  #univation  #unipol  #martech  #slurryloop  #gasphase  #massbalance #cpchem  #chevronphillips 

Safripol a polymer producer from South Africa has been created.

#safripol #southafrica  #polypropylene  #hdpe  #polyester  #pet  #hostalen  #spheripol  #invista 

The mass balance has been developed for the main processes, some downstream processes not yet covered. 


#polyethylene  #lldpe  #hdpe  #ldpe   #propyleneoxide  #raffinate  #butadiene  #ethylene  #steamcracking 

Multiple technologies have been identified and added.
Work in progress to add other technologies used by the complex, not yet modelled on the platform. 

#kbr  #phenolacetone  #cumene  #badger  #lyondellbasell  #spheripol  #lupotech  #isopropylbenzene  #cumene  #badger  #bisphenol  #phenol  #polycarbonate  #asahikasei  #steamcracker  #gascracker  #eoeg  #ethyleneglycol  #meg  #scientificdesign  #hostalen  #hdpe 

All Polyolefin and EO/EG Technologies from Phase 1 and Phase 2 have been added as well as their production capacities.

#polyethylene  #polypropylene  #ethyleneglycol  #hpeo  #meg   #hdpe  #lldpe  #pp  #ineos  #lupotech  #spheripol  #spherizone  #univation  #unipolpe  #master  #lyondellbasell  #shell  #cnooc  #china  #cspc 

Rotterdam, January 28, 2025 – LyondellBasell (LYB), the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies, today announced that Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) has selected its Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (Hostalen ACP) technology for a new 500 kiloton per year (kta) high-density polyethylene (HDPE) facility in Paradip, India.

The new HDPE plant will be integrated into IOCL's Paradip complex, one of India's largest integrated refinery-petrochemical complexes. Located on the eastern coast of India in the state of Odisha, the Paradip facility plays a strategic role in serving the growing polymer market in the Indian subcontinent. The complex, which includes a 15 million tonnes per year refinery, will benefit from the addition of this state-of-the-art HDPE unit to its existing petrochemical operations.


#paradip  #india  #hostalen  #acp  #lyondellbasell  #hdpe 

BASF launches new high-density polyethylene brand and makes significant progress in the construction of its integrated base in Zhanjiang

2^nd Dec 2024 | Sina.com  | Author: PROCESS Process Industry

On November 29, 2024, BASF launched a new high-density polyethylene (HDPE) brand, Easiplas^TM. At the same time, the construction of the high-density polyethylene plant at BASF’s Zhanjiang integrated base also made significant progress.

The high-density polyethylene plant under construction at BASF’s Zhanjiang integrated base also recently reached key milestones, including the successful installation of the reactor and product degassing silo, taking another substantial step towards the mechanical completion of the plant. The high-density polyethylene plant at BASF's integrated base in Zhanjiang will start construction in 2023, with an estimated annual production capacity of 500,000 tons, and is scheduled to be put into production at the end of 2025.

The brand name Easiplas^TM highlights high-quality plastic products made on latest technology that are easy to process and use.


Note: Technology employed can not be retrieved. Photo of the plant clearly shows a single gas phase reactor. It is strongly presumed the technology is Unipol PE employing Prodigy catalyst for making bimodal HDPE products. 


#hdpe  #basf  #china  #zhanjiang  #guandong 

8/2/2023 9:45:00 AM | Hydrocarbon Processing

INEOS has completed the formation of a 50/50 joint venture with SINOPEC for the Tianjin Nangang Ethylene Project, announced in December 2022, which is currently under construction by SINOPEC and expected to be on-stream by April 2024.

The petrochemical complex includes a 1.2 mtpa cracker, a new 500ktpa High-Density Polyethylene plant to produce INEOS pipe grade under license and 11 other derivative units.

The completion of the agreement today marks the continued progression of the significant petrochemical deals announced by the parties in July and December last year, and highlights the close relationship and growing collaboration between SINOPEC and INEOS.

#ineos  #sinopec  #tianjin  #sipc  #binhai  #nangang  #hdpe  #ethylene  #steamcracker  #ethyleneplant 

With a total investment of 27.8 billion yuan, a new million-ton ethylene project was launched.

2024-10-22, Source

The total investment of Luoyang Petrochemical's million-ton ethylene project is 27.8 billion yuan, mainly to build 13 sets of process production units such as 1 million tons/year ethylene, and implement oil refining adaptability transformation at the same time.

On December 22, 2023, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation and Henan Shenma Guoxing Industrial Investment Co., Ltd. signed an investment cooperation intention agreement. The two parties will jointly invest to establish a joint venture to jointly build the Luoyang Petrochemical million-ton ethylene project and create a first-class green petrochemical advanced materials industry base in China.

On September 12, 2024, Sinopec Group approved the basic design of Luoyang Petrochemical's million-ton ethylene project, marking that the Luoyang Petrochemical's million-ton ethylene project will enter the full construction stage.

The construction content of Luoyang Petrochemical Million Tons of Ethylene Project includes the construction of:
°a new 1 million tons/year ethylene unit,
°a 600,000 tons/year cracking gasoline hydrogenation unit,
°a 400,000 tons/year aromatics extraction unit,
°a 300,000 tons/year m-LLDPE unit,
°a 350,000 tons/year HDPE unit, and
°a 350,000 tons/year #3  polypropylene unit.

The project is scheduled to be completed and put into operation in December 2025.

After the project is put into production, it can sell about 3 million tons of various chemical products each year, increase the output value by 20 billion yuan, drive more than 160 billion yuan of downstream industrial chain investment, and form an industrial cluster of "hundreds of billions of investment and 10,000 jobs.

#luoyang  #petrochemical  #cpcc  #sinopec  #ethylene  #steamcracker  #hdpe  #lldpe  #polypropylene  #polyethylene  #gasoline  #pygas  #hydrogenation  #china  #henan

Sinopec INEOS (Tianjin) Petrochemical Co., Ltd. and manufacturing site have been added.


#sinopec  #ineos  #tianjin  #petrochemical  #olefins  #steamcracking  #ethylene  #polyethylene  #polypropylene  #hdpe  #lldpe  #poe  #elastomers  #acrylonitriele  #butadiene  #pygas  #aromatics  #mtbe 

On Oct 1st, 2024, Technip Energies announced that the Long Son Petrochemicals Co., Ltd. (LSP) olefins plant in Long Son Island, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province,  Vietnam, passed its final performance acceptance test.

Technip Energies provided licensing, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, start-up and initial operation for the 1,350,000 tonnes/year cracker. As Vietnam’s first olefins plant, the flexible feed cracker, can utilize both naphtha and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) feeds to produce ethylene, propylene, and butadiene.

The plant successfully started up end 2023 to reach its full capacity shortly after the start-up and pass its first performance test in February 2024. The plant, which broke ground end 2018, includes Technip Energies’ licensed ethylene technology, including Ultra Selective Conversion (USC®) furnaces preferred for high selectivity and low cost, and the Heat-Integrated Rectifier System®, preferred for energy efficient ethylene recovery.

However, Listed Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thailand's largest cement maker and industrial conglomerate, has suspended operations at its Long Son Petrochemicals (LSP) complex in order to cope with high production costs and the impact of a downturn in the global petrochemical market.

The suspension, slated to last for at least six months, began in mid-October, only roughly two weeks after LSP commenced commercial operations on Sept 30, with a production capacity of 74,000 tonnes.

A resumption of operations will mainly depend on the spread, according to SCG.

The petrochemical complex uses naphtha, which is a product of fossil fuels, as a key raw material to produce high density polyethylene (HDPE), but the prices of naphtha are expensive.

"The spread between naphtha and HDPE prices is US$300 per tonne because of a slowdown in the global petrochemical market," said Sakchai Patiparnpreechavud, chief executive and president of SCG Chemicals. "If the spread increases to $400 per tonne, we will consider resuming operations at LSP."

The suspension does not mean SCG Chemicals will stop investing in this petrochemical complex, he said.

SCG Chemicals plans to upgrade LSP, enabling it to use ethane, a colourless, odourless, gaseous hydrocarbon, as a raw material because it is cheaper than naphtha.

Mr Sakchai said the company will spend $700 million on the new investment, especially to build an ethane storage facility.

#technip  #scg  #siamcementgroup  #longson  #naphtha  #lpg  #steamcracker  #ethylene  #propylene  #butadiene  #olefins  #hdpe  #ethane  #storagefacility 

Full Density Range Polyethylene has been added.


#fdpe  #polyethylene  #fulldensity  #hdpe  #lldpe  #mdpe  #linearpolyethylene 

HDPE description has been updated.

#hdpe #polyethylene  #density  #comonomer