Catalytic olefins project under study in China - KBR

07 July 2011 16:12  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--A catalytic olefins project based on technology developed by US-based engineering group KBR and South Korea’s SK Innovation is under study in China, John Derbyshire, president of KBR’s technology division, said on Thursday.

The project will be the first commercial scale plant using the advanced catalytic olefins (ACO) technology, he said. KBR and SK Innovation, formerly SK Energy, started up a demonstration plant at SK Innovation's site in Ulsan, South Korea, at the beginning of this year.

“We hope to announce the first licensee before the end of this year,” Derbyshire said. “There are several things in the pipeline and we feel strongly that one of them will close quite soon.”

The project would form part of a grassroots petrochemical project which is being planned by a third party in China, he said.

Derbyshire declined to disclose the size of the plant but said it would be at the lower end of the 300,000-1m tonnes/year capacity range for such a project.

ACO technology, which is used to crack naphtha and condensates to produce light olefins, enables ethylene and propylene yields that are 15-20% higher than those of a traditional steam cracking process, according to KBR. The ACO route also enables a higher propylene/ethylene ratio than traditional steam crackers.

For more on olefins, visit ICIS chemical intelligence

 

By: Anna Jagger
+44 20 8652 3214

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