Jun 25 2009
LyondellBasell Industries has achieved another significant milestone in the global market introduction of its Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (ACP) technology, with two million tonnes of multimodal high density polyethylene (HDPE) capacity installed and under construction to date.
With last month's successful start up of the world-scale Hostalen ACP plant by Saudi Ethylene and Polyethylene Company (SEPC) in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, more than one million tonnes of multimodal HDPE capacity is in operation. In addition, more than one million tonnes of multimodal HDPE capacity are under construction in the Middle East and Europe. In January, the company announced that the technology is available for license to third parties.
Critical mass to introduce multimodal HDPE to global markets
LyondellBasell began using the technology on a proprietary basis at its Frankfurt and Wesseling facilities in Germany in 2004 and later began offering the process for license to its joint ventures in Poland and Saudi-Arabia.
"With more than two million tonnes, we have achieved critical mass to introduce multimodal HDPE to the global markets," said Kaspar Evertz, senior vice president of LyondellBasell's licensing business. "This milestone represents a true breakthrough in our efforts to expand Hostalen ACP use throughout the world to address growing customer needs for multimodal resins used in film, blow molding and pipe applications. It also affirms the superior product range offered by this process for the highly competitive HDPE market. We anticipate further growth of the technology primarily in Asia Pacific and South America."
The multimodal Hostalen ACP technology exceeds the limits of standard bimodal HDPE process technology by producing high performance resins with an industry-leading toughness/stiffness balance, superior impact resistance, higher stress crack resistance and significantly improved processing advantages.
In addition to the Hostalen ACP process, LyondellBasell's portfolio of licensed polyolefin technologies and associated technical services includes:
- Spherilene - advanced swing-gas-phase process for the production of monomodal and bimodal HDPE, MDPE and LLDPE
- Lupotech - high pressure tubular and autoclave processes for the production of LDPE and EVA copolymers
- Spherizone - latest-generation polypropylene technology, based on a multi-zone reactor for the production of polypropylene and novel polyolefins
- Spheripol - leading polypropylene technology for the production of homopolymer, random and heterophasic copolymers
- Metocene PP - innovative add-on technology for the production of specialty polypropylene products using single-site catalyst systems