TEHRAN�A 180,000 tonne/year paraxylene production unit has gone on stream at the Bandar Imam petrochemical complex in Iran, Bandar Imam Petrochemical Co. Managing Director Abbas Sherimoqadam said Monday. He said the project had cost $82 million.
Iran's National Petrochemical Co. last year launched a major expansion of the country's petrochemical sector, including work in the Bandar Imam special petrochemical economic zone (OGJ, Aug. 23, 1999, p. 27).
Sherimoqadam told the Iranian News Agency that the unit started tentative operation in October and was operating at 98% of its nominal capacity. French research institute IFP holds the process license, signed in 1996.
The unit's output will be exported because the 44,000-tonne/year Isfahan petrochemical complex meets domestic needs.
He said his company had produced 3 million tonnes of petrochemicals in the first 8 months of the year.
The company earned $378 million in the 8-month period through the export of its products, said Sherimoqadam. He predicted that the total would reach $460 million by the mid-March.
