MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lummus Technology has achieved successful plant acceptance from Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp. for the company's cumene and phenol plant expansion in Ningbo, China, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The expansion was to an existing 450 kMTA cumene and 300 kMTA phenol plant, which now has a 600 kMTA cumene and 400 kMTA phenol capacity.
"We are proud that this plant has successfully demonstrated reliable operation since its first start-up," said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. "Formosa's acceptance is another milestone in our long and close relationship that spans multiple decades. During this time, Lummus has provided world-class technology solutions to Formosa and helped them achieve reliability, optimization and superior performance at their facilities, while also lowering their carbon footprint."
The original plant was licensed in 2010 by Lummus. In 2017 Lummus was selected again by Formosa to provide the technology license and engineering design of the cumene and phenol plant expansion.
Versalis/Lummus' cumene and phenol technologies are best-in-class process technologies that leverage the design, operating and research experience of both organizations.
Phenol produced using the Versalis/Lummus process has the lowest carbon footprint due to lower overall energy consumption among available phenol technologies. The phenol process is an intrinsically safe and highly reliable wet-oxidation process. It utilizes advanced technology features, which not only maximize the phenol/acetone product yields and produce a very high purity phenol/acetone products but also results in the lowest cost of production per MT of phenol.
As MRC wrote before, in July 2021, Lummus Technology and Chevron Lummus Global LLC (CLG) announced multiple technology contracts from North Huajin Refining and Petrochemical Co., Ltd. for a grassroots refinery and petrochemical complex in Liaoning Province, China. The complex will include one of the largest vacuum residue desulfurization (VRDS) units in China and one of the largest Novolen polypropylene (PP) plants. Lummus will provide the license and basic engineering for its Novolen PP technology, plus the associated catalysts. CLG will provide the license and basic engineering for the VRDS technology, plus proprietary reactor internals and catalysts.
Phenol is largely used to produce bisphenol A (BPA), which, in its turn, is used in the production of plastics such as polycarbonate (PC) and epoxy resins.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall estimated consumption of PC granules totalled 50,300 tonnes in the first half of 2021 (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus), compared to 47,300 tonnes a year earlier. Demand increased by 6%.
Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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