S Korea’s LG Chem to continue LPG feed into aromatics units in May

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–South Korea’s LG Chem will continue partially feeding its aromatics units in Daesan and Yeosu with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the month of May, a company source said late on Wednesday.

LPG will still account for 5-10% of the aromatics facilities’ feedstock, he said.

“Margins are still lucrative to feed mixed-feed,” the source said, adding that it is unclear up to when will the company continue feeding LPG into the plants.

Use of LPG leads to LG’s lower aromatics output, which the company is trying to normalise by purchasing additional pygas. Aromatics products can be extracted from pygas.

The Daesan-based aromatics unit – which has a nameplate capacity of 260,000 tonnes/year of benzene, 54,000 tonnes/year of toluene and 36,000 tonnes/year of solvent xylene – will run on 10% LPG feed in May, mixed with naphtha, the source said.

For the Yeosu-based aromatics facility, LPG will have a 5% share of the total feed, the source said. This facility can produce 240,000 tonnes/year of benzene, 96,000 tonnes/year of toluene and 36,000 tonnes/year of solvent xylenes.

The two aromatics facilities are operating at full capacity, the source said.