Blue Star considers PTMEG with Tianjin BDO

26 July 2004 00:01  [Source: ACN]

CHINA National Blue Star (Group) Corp is considering integrating an earlier announced 25 000 tonne/year 1,4 butanediol (BDO) project in Tianjin, China, with a 50 000 tonne/year polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG) facility, a company source told ACN.

The BDO project was one of several announced last year (ACN 28 July 2003). The official said the company hoped to bring both units onstream at end-2005 or in early 2006.

He added that the company was also considering producing styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) downstream of its planned butadiene unit. Blue Star recently awarded ABB Lummus and BASF a contract to use their technology in the butadiene-extraction project that would yield 30 000 tonne/year of butadiene, according to CNI, ACN’s sister agency. The butadiene plant is due onstream in 2005.

Blue Star earlier told ACN of its plan to produce 50 000 tonne/year of SBS in Tianjin.

A 180 000 tonne/year polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant has also been planned for Tianjin. The official said this project would not be affected by a similar project being pursued by Shenyang Wax Paraffin Chemical. Shenyang Wax Paraffin, whose assets were acquired by Blue Star in April, had planned to build a catalytic pyrolysis process unit, which would be integrated with ethylene dichloride, vinyl chloride monomer, PVC and acrylic acid/acrylates facilities before the asset acquisition took place (ACN 19 January 2004). These new facilities in Shenyang, Liaoning, are due to start up at end-2006.

The Blue Star official said the company supported Shenyang Wax Paraffin’s project, but added that it would be independent of its project in Tianjin. He could not give a start-up date for the Tianjin PVC project.

Meanwhile, Blue Star has delayed the commissioning of its to-be-expanded toluene di-isocyanate plant in Taiyuan, Shanxi, to next month from early 2004. The plant’s capacity will be raised to 30 000 tonne/year from 25 000 tonne/year.

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