BP Amoco ups China acetic acid plant capacity

19 October 1999 12:00  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--BP Amoco announced Tuesday it has uprated by a third the production capacity of its joint venture acetic acid plant at Chuanwei, near Chongqing, south west China, and plans to expand production even further.

The company said in a statement that the uprating from 150 000 tonne/year to 200 000 tonne/year was done through a combination of fine tuning the plant operations and using its proprietary acetic acid technology. The Chuanwei plant is owned by BP Amoco (51%) and its partners in the Yangtze River Acetyls Company (Yaraco) - Sinopec Sichuan Vinylon Works (44%) and Chongqing Investment and Construction Company (5%).

Iain Macdonald, BP Amoco's acetyls business unit leader, said that the uprating work on the $200m (about Euro190m) plant - which began operations in late 1998/early1999 - was achieved without any investment in debottlenecking.

He added: "The success of this project is in line with our objective to consolidate our global position in acetic acid."

Bob Baldwin, the Chongqing-based joint venture director, said in the statement that Yaraco is weighing plans to expand production to more than 200 000 tonne/year by employing BP Amoco's Cativa acetic acid technology.

The Cativa system speeds up the chemicals reaction rate and is based on an iridium catalyst. The new catalyst is most effective when used in combination with lithium and ruthenium, and benefits include reduced capital cost and fewer by-products.

BP Amoco did not disclose any financial information on the uprating investment to date or expansion plans. No one was immediately available at the company to give further information.

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Patrick Reynolds
+44 208 652 3214

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