Plant Watch Top 10 Engineering Projects of September 2022

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PROCESS Worldwide brings to you the ‘Top 10 plant engineering projects of September 2022’ from all over the world. Right from the world’s first demo plant for electrically heated steam cracker furnaces taking off to Dow and Mura developing Europe’s largest advanced recycling plant in Germany, find out all the projects making headlines here.

Thyssenkrupp Uhde to Develop World-Scale Blue Ammonia Facility in Qatar

Sept 01 – Thyssenkrupp Uhde has won a new contract from its long-standing customer and Qatarenergy’s affiliate, Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco), for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of a world-scale ammonia plant, capable of producing its full output as Blue Ammonia. The contract was signed on August 31, 2022, and the plant is planned to be completed by the first quarter of 2026.

The project is realized in a consortium with Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), a leading construction company in the Middle East. Thanks to the uhde ammonia technology, the single-train plant will have a record capacity of 3,500 metric tons/day. This further enhances thyssenkrupp Uhde’s strong position in the mega-scale market.

World’s First Demo Plant for Electrically Heated Steam Cracker Furnaces Takes Off

Sept 02 – BASF, Sabic and Linde have started construction of the world’s first demonstration plant for large-scale electrically heated steam cracker furnaces. By using electricity from renewable sources instead of natural gas, the new technology has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions of one of the most energy-intensive production processes in the chemical industry by at least 90 % compared to technologies commonly used today.

The demonstration plant will be fully integrated into one of the existing steam crackers at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. It will test two different heating concepts, processing around 4 tons of hydrocarbon per hour and consuming 6 megawatts of renewable energy. The start-up of the demonstration plant is targeted for 2023.

BASF and Sabic are investing together into the project and the demonstration plant will be operated by BASF. Linde is the engineering, procurement and construction partner for the project and in the future will commercialize the developed technologies.

To support the development of the novel furnace technology, the project has been granted 14.8 million euros by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action under its ‘Decarbonization in Industry’ funding program. The program is supporting energy-intensive industries in Germany in their efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

The demonstration plant aims to show that continuous olefin production is possible using electricity as a heat source. The plant is designed in a way that two heating concepts can be tested in parallel: Direct heating applies an electric current directly to the process tubes inside the reactor; indirect heating uses radiative heat of heating elements placed around the tubes. Testing these two concepts will make it possible to react flexibly to different customer and site requirements.

Topsoe to Build World’s Largest SOEC Electrolyzer Plant in Denmark

Sept 02 – Topsoe has undertaken a final investment decision to begin construction of the world’s largest SOEC electrolyzer manufacturing plant in Herning, Denmark. The manufacturing capacity of the plant is 500 MW per year with an option to expand to 5 GW.

Topsoe CEO, Roeland Baan, said: “The case for using electrolysis to produce green fuels is now well established, but manufacturing capacity has always been the challenge. We are facing this challenge head on. We are dedicated to taking the lead on scaling power-to-x technology to help drive the energy transition, and we are investing to meet this demand and address this fundamental supply weakness. This is the single biggest investment in the company’s history, clearly highlighting our commitment to driving the energy transition, and we hope this huge facility will act as a catalyst for new investment in the future.”

This is a rapid acceleration not just for Topsoe, but also Denmark, and the EU towards a green energy transition while reducing dependence on fossil fuels. SOEC consumes less electricity than alkaline and PEM technologies, since the process requires less power overall; with the integration of a steam feed, the SOEC process becomes even more efficient.

BASF Inaugurates First Plant at New Zhanjiang Verbund Site in China

Sept 07 – BASF has recently inaugurated the first plant of its new Zhanjiang Verbund site in the province Guangdong in South China. The plant will provide a capacity of 60,000 metric tons of engineering plastics compounds per year in China for customers, particularly in the automotive and electronics industries.

Upon completion, the new Verbund site Zhanjiang will be the third largest Verbund site of BASF globally after Ludwigshafen, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium and a role model of sustainable production both in China and globally. BASF plans to power the entire Zhanjiang Verbund site with electricity from renewable resources and targets to achieve 100 percent by 2025.

Products from Zhanjiang will supply customers in the dynamic Chinese market, which is the most important growth market for global chemical production.

Dow, Mura to Develop Europe’s Largest Advanced Recycling Plant in Germany

Sept 15 – Dow and Mura Technology have recently announced the next step in their ongoing collaboration to help solve the global plastics waste issue and advance circularity. Mura plans to construct a new facility at Dow's Böhlen site in Germany – the latest in a series of planned facilities across the U.S. and Europe to rapidly scale advanced recycling of plastics – and the first expected to be based at a Dow site. This project is targeted for a final investment decision by the end of 2023.

Mura's new Böhlen facility in Germany, which is expected to be operational by 2025, would deliver approximately 120 kilotons per annum (KTA) of advanced recycling capacity at full run-rate. This and the other planned units expected to be constructed across Europe and the U.S. would collectively add as much as 600KTA of advanced recycling capacity by 2030 – and position Dow to become the largest consumer of circular feedstock for polyethylene production globally.

The planned facility builds on Dow's ongoing collaboration with Mura, first announced in 2021, with an initial project to construct the world's first plant using Mura's Hydroprs process, located in Teesside, UK. The Böhlen, Germany, site, expected to be co-located with Dow's manufacturing facilities, would enable a significantly larger capacity for plastic waste and considerably increase the supply of fully circular feedstock to the industry.

Technip Energies Wins Contract for Green Hydrogen Project

Sept 19 – Technip Energies, leader of a consortium with Monford Group, has been awarded an Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract by Yuri Operations, to develop Project Yuri Phase 0 project which is a green hydrogen plant in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Project Yuri which is being developed in partnership with Yara Clean Ammonia and Engie includes a 10 MW electrolysis plant and an 18 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) farm with its 8 MW Battery Energy System (BESS) providing the necessary energy for the electrolysis. It will produce up to 640 tonnes of green hydrogen per annum for use in the existing Yara Pilbara Ammonia Plant to produce green ammonia.

Technip Energies is responsible for the overall project management and the electrolysis plant engineering, procurement, commissioning and start up. Monford Group is responsible for the overall project construction and the PV farm engineering, procurement, commissioning and start up. The Project has received grant funding from the Federal Government via Arena, as part the Advancing Renewables Program and from Western Australia State Government as a part of Western Australian Renewable Hydrogen Fund.

Mitsui & Co. has agreed to acquire a 28 per cent stake in Yuri Operations subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions under its investment agreement.

The project has been named as Yuri, and the project plan has a multi-phase (Phase 0-I-II-III) roadmap (Yuri Roadmap) which aims to establish a new industry value chain, harvesting the abundant renewable power in Western Australia, to make renewable hydrogen and ammonia as feedstock for renewable chemical production, as well as renewable fuel for power generation and shipping, serving local and export markets (Asia and beyond).

Thermo Fisher Scientific Sets Up 160-Million-Dollar Biomanufacturing Unit in USA

Sept 21 – Thermo Fisher Scientific recently inaugurated a new biomanufacturing facility in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, USA. The 160 million dollar, 85,000-square-foot facility will help meet growing demand for the biologic materials needed to produce vaccines and breakthrough therapies for cancer and other diseases. This new site is part of Thermo Fisher’s 650-million-dollar multi-year investment to expand its bioprocessing production capabilities.

The technologies produced at the Chelmsford site are used in the purification process of developing biotherapeutics and vaccines. These products help save time and reduce costs so that new treatments can reach more patients faster. With the opening of the site in Chelmsford, Thermo Fisher continues to bring its capacity investments online to support customers as they grow and scale.

Jean Luo, vice president and general manager, purification and pharma analytics, Thermo Fisher Scientific said, “The Chelmsford site will help us provide our customers with the critical resin materials they need as they scale up production and bring new innovations to market. This ultimately helps ensure more patients get the treatments they need faster.”

Grace Licenses Polypropylene Technology for Olefin Project in Indonesia

Sept 23 – W. R. Grace & Co. (Grace) has received a commitment from PT Kilang Pertamina International (PT KPI) to use Grace’s Unipol PP technology, which is part of its larger initiative, the Trans-Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI) Olefin Complex Development Project in Indonesia. This project will empower PT KPI to increase refinery and polyolefin capacity by addressing the gap between strong demand growth of petrochemicals and the shortage in domestic production capacity.

The 600 KTA polypropylene plant will be designed to produce homopolymers, random and impact copolymers to cover domestic and international market needs.

Yokogawa Chosen as Main Automation Contractor for Europe’s Largest Renewable Hydrogen Plant

Sept 27 – Yokogawa Electric Corporation has been selected by Shell to be the main automation contractor (MAC) for the construction of its Holland Hydrogen I plant in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

The Holland Hydrogen I plant will produce renewable hydrogen by using electricity from an offshore wind farm and will be Europe's largest renewable hydrogen plant once operational in 2025. In its role as MAC, Yokogawa will optimize operations at the plant by closely integrating its systems and equipment.

The Holland Hydrogen I plant will have a 200 megawatts (MW) electrolyzer that will produce up to 60,000 kilograms of green hydrogen per day. The green hydrogen produced at this plant will be transported via a pipeline to the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, where it will replace some of the grey hydrogen used in the refinery, partially decarbonizing the facility's production of energy products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Adnoc Refining to Complete Phase I of Waste Heat Recovery Project in UAE

Sept 29 – Adnoc Refining, a joint venture company between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), Eni, and OMV, is set to complete the first phase of its innovative Waste Heat Recovery project at the General Utilities Plant in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.

The Waste Heat Recovery project is one of several strategic initiatives to decarbonize Adnoc’s operations. Started in 2018, the 600-million-dollar Waste Heat Recovery project will recycle waste heat generated from the plant to produce up to an additional 230 megawatts (MW) of electricity per day – enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. It will also produce 62,400 cubic meters (m3) of distilled water per day for use in the plant. Overall, the project will increase power production and thermal efficiency at the plant by around 30 % with no additional carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Phase one of the project, which includes the operation of two new boilers and turbines, will be completed before the end of the year, while phase two, which includes a further two boilers, will be completed around the middle of 2023. Abdulla Ateya Al Messabi, CEO of Adnoc Refining said: “At Adnoc Refining we are committed to finding innovative ways to improve the efficiency and sustainability of our operations. The Waste Heat Recovery project will revolutionize power and water generation at our plant in Ruwais, and is vital to the ongoing expansion of Ruwais as part of Adnoc’s 2030 smart growth strategy.”

Adnoc’s Waste Heat Recovery project is designed to capture exhaust heat from the gas-powered turbines at Adnoc Refining’s General Utilities Plant, which is currently vented into the atmosphere, to produce steam that is subsequently used for power production.

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