Plant Watch Top 10 Engineering Projects of August 2021

PROCESS Worldwide brings to you the ‘Top 10 plant engineering projects of August 2021’ from all over the world. Right from building a world scale petrochemical complex in Indonesia to converting a refinery services facility into the first carbon-neutral (blue) hydrogen production facility in the USA, find out all the projects making headlines here.

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Indonesia: Chandra Asri to Establish World Scale Petrochemical Complex

Aug 3 – Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) has obtained an investment of 1.7 billion dollars to develop its second world scale integrated petrochemical complex in Indonesia. The project will include a cracker unit, polymerized olefins and related facilities and utilities.

CAP has selected Thai Oil Public Company (Thaioil) as its chosen Strategic Investor after a robust selection process. Construction is expected to take 4 to 5 years, creating 25,000 jobs over the period. The project will double the Company’s production capacity from the current 4.2 million tons a year to more than 8 million tons a year.

Indonesia: Hyundai Motor, LG Energy Solution to Build New Battery Cell Plant

Aug 3 – Hyundai Motor Group has teamed up with LG Energy Solution to secure a stable supply of battery cells for its battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The Group and LG Energy Solution announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Indonesia to establish a joint venture in Indonesia to manufacture battery cells for BEVs.

Under the MOU, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution will invest a total of 1.1 billion dollars into the JV to build a battery cell plant in Karawang, Indonesia. When fully operational, the facility is expected to produce a total of 10 GWh worth of NCMA lithium-ion battery cells every year, enough for more than 150,000 BEVs.

Germany: Haltermann Carless to Become Largest Producer of Cyclopentane in the World

Aug 5 – Haltermann Carless will become the world's largest producer of Cyclopentane and Cyclopentane blends following the completion of its new hydrogenation plant at the Speyer site in Germany. The company anticipates to significantly increase its production capacity of Cyclopentane by up to 70 % as of Q1 2022.

The Speyer hydrogenation plant is the largest investment Haltermann Carless has made since becoming part of the HCS Group. In addition to the Pentane product line, the plant will also be used to produce Middle Distillates with a particularly high degree of purity, as required by the pharmaceutical or printing ink industries. The plant will also allow the company to develop and offer new types of products and facilitate the production of renewable hydrocarbons in the future.

Canada: Arcelor Mittal, Government of Canada to Invest Almost 2-Billion-Dollars in Decarbonization Solutions

Aug 9 – Arcelor Mittal has announced with the Government of Canada its intention for a 1.40-billion-dollar investment in decarbonization technologies at Arcelor Mittal Dofasco’s plant in Hamilton, Canada. The intended investments will reduce annual CO2 emissions at Arcelor Mittal’s Hamilton, Ontario operations by approximately 3 million tons, which represents approximately 60 % of emissions, within the next seven years. This means the Hamilton plant will transition away from the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace steelmaking production route to the Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) – Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) production route, which carries a significantly lower carbon footprint.

Arcelor Mittal will introduce new manufacturing processes that contribute to a considerable reduction of CO2 emissions and deliver other positive environmental impacts including the elimination of emissions and flaring from coke making and ironmaking operations. The Government of Canada recently announced that it will invest 318 million dollars in the project. The Company is in discussions with the Government of Ontario regarding its support. At the heart of the plan is a 2-million-ton capacity DRI facility and an EAF facility capable of producing 2.4 million tons of high-quality steel through its existing secondary metallurgy and secondary casting facilities. Modification of the existing EAF facility and continuous casters will also be undertaken to align productivity, quality and energy capabilities between all assets in the new footprint.

Russian Federation: Maire Tecnimont Secures 150 Million Dollar EP Project

Aug 9 – Maire Tecnimont has recently announced that its subsidiaries Tecnimont Planung & Industrieanlagenbau and MT Russia have been awarded by Kazanorgsintez PJSC (KOS) an EP contract (Engineering and Procurement). The contract is for the execution of a Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)/ Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) plant, to be implemented inside the existing KOS facilities, located in Kazan, in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation). The overall EP contract value is approximately 153 million dollars.

The contract is under a Lump Sum scheme for the Engineering and Procurement Services and under a Reimbursable scheme for the Equipment and Material supply. The Project will be mainly aimed at expanding the production capacity of polyolefins, and its completion is expected within about 40 months from the contract signing date.

USA: Plug Power Invests 84 Million Dollars for New Green Hydrogen Plant

Aug 12 – Plug Power, a leading provider of turnkey hydrogen solutions for the global green hydrogen economy, broke ground on the site of a green hydrogen production plant in Camden County, Georgia, USA, where 15 tons of liquid green hydrogen will be produced per day. By investing 84 million dollars into the facility, Plug Power affirms its continued commitment to establishing the first North American green hydrogen supply network.

The plant, which will serve customers in southeastern U.S., will produce liquid green hydrogen using 100 % renewable energy with the help of at least 24 full-time, local employees. The Georgia gas production plant is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

India: GAIL Selects Grace’s Technology for Polypropylene Facility

Aug 20 – W. R. Grace & Co. has licensed its Unipol PP Process Technology to GAIL (India). The Unipol PP process technology will be used for a 60 KTA polypropylene plant located at their existing petrochemical complex in Pata, India.

M. V. Iyer, Director of Business Development, said, “The total project economics, which included a catalyst supply agreement, made this an easy choice for us. We plan to produce a variety of homo-, random, and impact- copolymer resins using our existing propylene supply.” The Unipol PP process achieves mechanical and operational simplicity and delivers leading total installed cost and operating expense, accelerated project schedules, fast startups, grade transitions, and business results.

USA: Howard’s Facility to be Converted into Carbon-Neutral H2 Production Unit

Aug 23 – The Port of Corpus Christi Authority (Port of Corpus Christi) and Howard Midstream Energy Partners (Howard/HEP) have executed a Memorandum of Understanding stating their intention to convert Howard’s Javelina refinery services facility into the region’s first carbon-neutral hydrogen production facility. Howard’s Javelina facility is strategically positioned in the Port of Corpus Christi with pipeline connectivity to all six of the local refineries.

Javelina controls approximately sixty million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of hydrogen production through a combination of hydrogen entrained in the refineries’ waste gas that the facility processes, and hydrogen produced through a steam methane reformer process. This hydrogen is currently sold back to refineries and other industries where it is used to remove impurities like sulfur during the refining process. The Port of Corpus Christi and Howard ultimately hope to scale hydrogen production for exports to overseas demand centers. The Port of Corpus Christi is uniquely suited to become the nation’s premier carbon capture and sequestration management hub.

China: Sinopec Launches Phase 1 of Gulei Refining Complex

Aug 27 – Sinopec has recently announced that it has launched the first phase of the Gulei refining complex in Fujian, China. A whooping 4.28 billion dollars has been invested for the development of the first phase which will include an 800,000 tons per annum ethylene plant, a 600,000 tons per annum styrene unit and seven other downstream petrochemical units.

The refining complex, jointly owned (50:50) by Sinopec's Fujian Petrochemical Company and Taiwan Xuteng Investment Company, aims to produce 18 different chemical products such as polypropylene, ethylene glycol and styrene with total output reaching 3 million tons per year. The products will cater to the plastics, clothing, textiles, electronics, instrument manufacturing and rubber industries located in Zhangzhou and its nearby regions.

China: Sabic, Fujian Petrochemical to Build Mega Petrochemical Complex

Aug 31 – Sabic has entered into a joint venture contract with China's Fujian Petrochemical Industrial Group Co. (FJPEC) to build a world-class mega petrochemical complex in China. With a total investment of about 6.18 billion dollars, the complex will be built at Gulei Industrial Park in Zhangzhou city, east China.

News reports suggest that the project will include a mixed feed steam cracker with an expected ethylene capacity of 1.5 million tons annually, as well as numerous downstream facilities consisting of a mono ethylene glycol (MEG) unit, two polyethylene (PE) units, two polypropylene (PP) units, one polycarbonate (PC) unit and several by-product units.

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