UOP LLC, a Honeywell (NYSE: HON) company, announced today that HC Petrochem Co., Ltd. has selected UOP to provide technology for an expansion of its petrochemicals plant in Daesan, South Korea.
HC Petrochem Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Japan's Cosmo Oil and South Korea's Hyundai Oilbank, will use the UOP Parex™ process and the UOP Isomar™ process to help triple production of high-purity para-xylene to support growing, long-term demand for petrochemicals worldwide. Para-xylene is a key ingredient in the production of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), which is used to make polyester for fabric and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) chips for carbonated soft drink and water bottles.
"UOP has a long history of working with both of the HC Petrochem Co., Ltd. joint venture partners and is pleased to have been selected for this important project," said Peter Piotrowski, senior vice president of process, technology and equipment for Honeywell's UOP. "We are looking forward to implementing our newest technologies, which will help HC Petrochemicals become a leading provider of aromatics in Asia."
Basic engineering design of the plant has begun and start-up is projected for the second half of 2013. HC Petrochem Co., Ltd. plans to expand production of para-xylene from 380,000 metric tons per annum to 1,180,000 metric tons per annum.
The new Parex and Isomar process units will use mixed xylene as feedstock supplementing the existing UOP CCR Platforming™, Sulfolane™, Tatoray™, Isomar and Parex process units at the plant to expand the production. UOP is the world's leading licensor of process technology for the production of aromatics and has licensed more than 725 individual process units for the production of aromatics.
Hyundai Oilbank, a petrochemicals and refinery company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, and Cosmo Oil, a petroleum and petrochemicals company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, established HC Petrochem as a 50-50 joint venture in November 2009.
Source: www.honeywell.com