SASOL BUILDS COMONOMERS PLANT AT LAKE CHARLES

摘要

Sasol has confirmed plans to build the world’s first commercial ethylene tetramerization unit. The facility will be designed to produce more than 100,000 m.t./year of combined octene-1 and hexene-1 comonomers at the company’s Lake Charles, LA complex. It will use Sasol’s proprietary technology and will convert ethylene to octene-1 and hexene-1. Construction is scheduled to begin next year with full operation expected by mid-2013. Sasol awarded a basic engineering contract for the project to Jacobs Engineering in November 2009. Further details were not disclosed. Sasol is a major producer of comonomer range alpha-olefins with current production capacity of more than 350,000 m.t./year. “The additional capacity to be built at Lake Charles will help Sasol’s global customer base achieve its long-term polymer and elastomergrowth prospects, and the investment reflects our confidence in the competitiveness of the U.S. petrochemicals industry,” says Andre de Ruyter, senior group executive/operations. Octene-1 and hexene-1 are used as comonomers in the production of linear low-density polyethyleneand high-density polyethylene, as well as elastomers. They provide special characteristics of elasticity and strength to polyethylene grades used in consumer products such as food packaging, bags, toys, and automotive interiors, and in power cable coatings. Announcement of the ethylene tetramerization project follows Sasol’s recent decision to invest R1.9 billion ($277 million) to build an ethylene purification unit at Sasolburg, South Africa and R950 million to replace a fertilizer granulation plant at Secunda, South Africa.