Formosa lets contract for Texas olefins complex expansion

Sept. 26, 2014
Formosa Plastics Corp. (FPC) has let a contract to Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG to provide process technology for a propane dehydrogenation plant (PDH) to be built as part of the third major expansion of its petrochemical complex in Point Comfort, Tex.

Formosa Plastics Corp. (FPC) has let a contract to Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG to provide process technology for a propane dehydrogenation plant (PDH) to be built as part of the third major expansion of its petrochemical complex in Point Comfort, Tex. (OGJ Online, June 3, 2013).

ThyssenKrupp will deliver its proprietary Steam Active Reforming (STAR) process technology for dehydrogenation of light hydrocarbons for the plant, the service provider said.

The contract includes licensing, basic engineering, detail engineering for the key equipment, delivery of STAR catalyst, and technical support during the entire project execution, according to ThyssenKrupp.

The PDH plant in Point Comfort will have a propylene production capacity of 545,000 tonnes/year (tpy), ThyssenKrupp said.

Neither a value of the contract nor a timeframe for the PDH project was disclosed.

The US Environmental Protection Agency recently issued three final greenhouse gas prevention of significant deterioration construction permits for the Point Comfort complex expansion, which FPC first announced in February 2012 (OGJ Online, Aug. 6, 2014).

According to EPA documents, the $2 billion planned expansion will include:

• A low-density polyethylene plant with a production capacity of 625,500 tpy.

• An olefins production unit at the complex as well as a PDH unit consisting of 14 cracking furnaces, four PDH reactors, four steam boilers, and other associated equipment.

• Two GE 7EA, 80-Mw natural gas-fired, combined-cycle turbines to the plant’s existing six GE 7EA combined-cycle gas turbines.

The Olefins 3 and associated PDH units will increase the plant’s production capacity of high-purity ethylene by about 1.75 million short tons/year (about 1.59 million tpy), according to the final EPA permit.

FPC previously said the Point Comfort expansion was designed to take advantage of increasingly reliable and low-cost North American natural gas feedstock supplies, as well increase the security, flexibility, and breadth of material supplies and products at the complex.