Aug 6 2009
LyondellBasell joint venture Saudi Ethylene and Polyethylene Company (SEPC) has successfully started up its world-scale low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant based on the Lupotech T process technology. Located in Al-Jubail, the plant's initial capacity of 400 KT was exceeded in the first weeks of operation, when it achieved production rates of up to 57 metric tons per hour. This equates to an annual capacity of 450 KT, and makes it the largest facility of its kind in the world.
"The better than expected performance of the Lupotech T plant at SEPC clearly demonstrates the technology's scale-up efficiency and economic leadership compared to all other LDPE technologies available" said Ahmad Alghamdi, General Manager Operations SEPC.
In addition to the proven capacity increase, the plant's consumption of utilities has been significantly lower than calculated. Specific energy consumption is 10 percent less than predicted, which firmly establishes the facility as the most efficient tubular process plant in the world.
According to Kaspar Evertz, Senior Vice President Licensing at LyondellBasell's Technology Business, "This record-breaking operating performance, while maintaining the stringent quality requirements for industry reference products, once again confirms LyondellBasell's Lupotech T process as the leading LDPE technology in the world. Working in close cooperation with SEPC, we have also been able to deliver a best-in-class cost structure."
In addition to the Lupotech T process, LyondellBasell's portfolio of licensed polyolefin technologies and associated technical services is composed of:
- Lupotech A - high pressure autoclave process for the production of specialty LDPE and EVA copolymers
- Spherilene - advanced, swing-gas-phase process for the production of mono-modal and bimodal HDPE, MDPE and LLDPE
- Hostalen - Low-pressure slurry process for the production of high-performance multimodal HDPE
- Spheripol - leading polypropylene technology for the production of homopolymer, random and heterophasic copolymers
- Spherizone - latest-generation polypropylene technology, based on a multi-zone reactor for the production of polypropylene and novel polyolefins
- Metocene PP - technology for the production of specialty polypropylene products using single-site catalyst systems