Inter Pipeline Ltd., Calgary, has approved construction of Canada’s first integrated propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene (PP) complex in Strathcona County, Alta., to convert locally sourced, low-cost propane into PP for sale mostly to the US.
To be built near Inter Pipeline’s Redwater Olefinic Fractionator (ROF)—which has a capacity to fractionate about 40,000 b/d of ethane-plus mixture—the proposed $3.5-billion (Can.) Heartland Petrochemical Complex (HPC) will include a united PDH and PP plant designed to convert 22,000 b/d of propane feedstock from ROF and several other third-party fractionators in the region into 525,000 tonnes/year of polymer-grade PP, the operator said.
Supported by a combination of debt and equity financing sources and underpinned by take-or-pay agreements, the project also has been awarded $200 million of royalty credits under Alberta’s Petrochemical Diversification Program, which was created as part of the Alberta Jobs Plan to encourage companies to invest in the development of new petrochemicals facilities in the province.
Scheduled to begin major construction activities in early 2018, the complex—which also will include a $600-million, 96-Mw central utility block owned and financed by an as-yet-to-be-identified third party—is slated for startup in late 2021, Inter Pipeline said in a project-update presentation.
Contractors, technology
Awarded to Fluor Corp. in 2013, detailed engineering for the HPC is now about 85% completed, as are early civil works at the project site in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland area.
Front-end engineering on the project, awarded to Linde AG’s engineering division in 2017, is about 70% completed, Inter Pipeline said.
Honeywell International Inc. subsidiary Honeywell UOP LLC will license its proprietary C3 Oleflex technology for production of propylene at the PDH portion of HPC, while W.R. Grace & Co. will provide its proprietary Unipol process technology for the complex’s PP unit, the operator said.
To enhance cost control, Inter Pipeline said it will award a lump-sum unit rate contract to Kiewit Energy Canada Corp.’s Kiewit Construction Services ULC of Calgary to deliver construction of the project.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
