JG Summit taps Lummus/BASF technology for BD; GTC tech for BTX

MANILA (ICIS)–Philippines’ JG Summit Petrochemical Corp will be using the process technologies of Lummus/BASF for butadiene (BD) extraction and of GTC Technology for benzene-toluene-xylene (BTX) extraction, a company executive said.

The company is expanding into BD and BTX production at its integrated petrochemical complex in Batangas as part of its $500m-600m expansion over the next three years.

“We have already signed up technology agreements for most of the projects…. the BTX, BD, the [cracker and polypropylene] expansion, all these are going through the basic front-end engineering phase,” JG Summit Petrochemical president and chief operating officer Patrick Go told ICIS.

The company is expected to produce around 160,000-170,000 tonnes of combined BTX, and 80,000-90,000 tonnes of BD after the expansion of its cracker in Batangas, Go said.

JG Summit Petrochemical operates a naphtha cracker in Batangas that currently yields about 280,000 tonnes/year of pyrolysis gasoline (pygas); and between 110,000-120,000 tonnes/year of mixed C4, from which BTX and BD can be extracted, respectively.

“Right now, we sell [pygas and mixed C4] as a full stream. After the expansion, we will be extracting the components,” Go said.

At the end of the cracker’s expansion, its pygas yield will increase to about 300,000 tonnes/year, while its mixed C4 output will rise to about 200,000-210,000 tonnes/year, Go said.

“BTX stream will be about 60% of the 300,000 tonnes. The exact percentage will change depending on the quality of the naphtha we buy, but we expect 60% to be BTX. And then BD, it should be about 40% of 200,000 tonnes,” he said.

(Top image; JG Summit petrochemical plant; Source: Company website)

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