France’s Total SA has completed a project to increase feedstock flexibility at one of two steam crackers in its 338,000-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical platform in Antwerp, Belgium.
The steam cracker is now producing ethylene using ethane feedstock imported from Norway, Total said.
The nearly $60-million project, which also involved work to upgrade an associated terminal to receive 200,000 tonnes/year of ethane shipments, comes as part of Total’s more than $1.3-billion modernization project under way at Antwerp to further integrate processing units and expand petrochemical production at the site using low-cost feedstock (OGJ Online, May 23, 2013).
With the feedstock-flexibility leg of the modernization project now completed, the steam cracker is able to use ethane, butane, or naphtha to produce 1.1 million tpy of ethylene, with price-advantaged feedstock now possibly to account for more than 50% of petrochemical feed at the site, the operator said.
The steam cracker’s revamp follows a series of ongoing modernization works at Antwerp, including construction of a solvent deasphalting unit and mild hydrocracking unit for the refinery’s new upgrading complex, as well as the addition of a plant that will convert refinery offgases into petrochemical feedstock (OGJ Online, Jan. 28, 2016).
Total said it expects to complete remaining modernization upgrades at the Antwerp platform sometime during this year’s second half.
Global strategy
The French operator is undertaking similar projects to increase integration and expand petrochemical production at Houston-based subsidiary Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc.'s refining and petrochemical manufacturing site in Port Arthur, Tex., as well as at Hanwha Total Petrochemicals Co. Ltd.'s (HTPCL) Daesan refining and petrochemicals integrated complex in Chungnam Province, South Korea (OGJ Online, Apr. 12, 2017; Mar. 28, 2017; Mar. 27, 2017).
Total holds 50% interest in HTPCL alongside partner Hanwha Group, Seoul.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].