Celanese expands acetic acid capacity at Clear Lake, Texas facility

LONDON (ICIS)–Celanese is expanding its acetic acid facility in Clear Lake, Texas, as it looks to reconfigure its global acetic acid production network through a number of value-creating steps, the global chemicals and specialty materials firm said on Monday.

Having recently announced the acquisition of the carbon monoxide production unit at the company’s Clear Lake site from Linde, Celanese is to expand its acetic acid facility from 1.3m tonnes/year to approximately 2m tonnes /year by 2021.

The expansion, Celanese said, will facilitate productivity options within its global acetic acid network in both Singapore and Nanjing, China, leading to approximately 600,000 tonnes/year of production rationalisation and limited net change in total system tonnage.

When completed, the projects are expected to generate about $100m worth of productivity and efficiency benefits across the platform.

“By reconfiguring our global production capabilities through these capital-efficient, value-creation steps, Celanese will have a more optimised production network supporting our customer base,” said Todd Elliott, senior vice president for Celanese’s acetyls division.

“Furthermore, this strengthening of our position in Clear Lake supports the recently completed VAM expansion.”

Financial details of the expansion were not disclosed.