South Africa’s Sasol Ltd. has let a contract to a division of Emerson Electric Co., St. Louis, Mo., to provide automation services and technology for a proposed integrated ethane cracker and downstream derivatives complex to be built adjacent to the company’s existing operations near Lake Charles in Westlake, La. (OGJ Online, Dec. 3, 2012).
As part of the contract package, Emerson Process Management (EPM), Bloomington, Minn., will deliver its proprietary DeltaV distributed control system, DeltaV SIS process safety system, and AMS Suite predictive maintenance software to monitor and control processes and equipment in each of the petrochemical complex’s processing plants, Emerson said.
The service company also will provide its proprietary Micro Motion and Rosemount measurement and analytical instruments, as well as Fisher control values and regulators to the complex.
EPM previously completed a detailed engineering and execution plan for the project to help identify opportunities for automation technology that would reduce complexity, create project cost savings, and reduce schedule and cost risks, according to Jim Nyquist, Emerson’s group vice-president.
Designed to take advantage of North America’s abundant, low-cost natural gas supplies, the petrochemical complex will include a grassroots ethane cracker capable of producing 1.5 million tonnes/year of ethylene, a 450,000-tpy linear low-density polyethylene plant, as well as several other chemical manufacturing plants (OGJ Online, Dec. 23, 2014; Dec. 4, 2014).
The $8.9-billion complex, which will more than triple Sasol’s US chemical production capacity, remains on schedule to be commissioned sometime in 2018 (OGJ Online, Mar. 9, 2015; Nov. 3, 2014), Emerson said.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
