COPESUL (COMPANHIA PETROQUIMICA DO SUL), Brazil, the largest producer of ethylene in Brazil, commissioned and started up a second ethylene unit at Triunfo, Brazil, at the beginning of March.
The new grassroots unit has an ethylene-production capacity of 450,000 tonnes/day. This new unit brings Copesul's capacity at Triunfo up to 1.13 million tonnes/day.
The new plant produced specification ethylene on July 9, 1999. It successfully executed its performance test in November 1999.
Work involved
The plant uses Stone & Webster's Ultra Selective Coils (USC) furnace technology, advanced recovery system (ARS) technology, proprietary Ripple trays, and proprietary spent caustic treatment system.
Stone & Webster received the contract for basic engineering, basic and detailed engineering, and international procurement in December 1996. Odebrecht Engineering & Construction, a Brazilian engineering company, provided procurement, construction, and precommissioning in the country.
As part of the contract, Stone & Webster was involved in the design or construction of several other new units: a pyrolysis gasoline hydrotreater, a butene-1 recovery system, a wastewater treatment unit, a 33-Mw gas turbine generation plant, and a propylene recovery plant.
Copesul's main business activities are the production, marketing, import, and export of chemical products, and the production and distribution of steam and water byproducts. The company's principal raw material supplier is Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras).
Most of its sales are made to companies located near Copesul's plant and to Petrobras' Alberto Pasqualini refinery, Triunfo.
