Shell unit advances construction at Appalachian ethylene complex

Oct. 10, 2018
Shell Chemical Appalachia has completed installation of major equipment at its long-planned grassroots petrochemical complex currently under construction along the Ohio River in Potter Township, Beaver County, Pa., about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The heavy lift of the 2,000-tonne, 87-m tall quench tower was undertaken on Oct. 7 and is now completed, Shell said.

Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC has completed installation of major equipment at its long-planned grassroots petrochemical complex currently under construction along the Ohio River in Potter Township, Beaver County, Pa., about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh (OGJ Online, Nov. 8, 2017).

The heavy lift of the 2,000-tonne, 87-m tall quench tower—the largest piece of equipment for the Pennsylvania petrochemicals complex—was undertaken on Oct. 7 and is now completed, Shell said.

Since start of main construction on the complex in November 2017, Shell said it also has safely erected two of three reactors associated with the planned polyethylene (PE) units as well as laid about 15 miles of underground pipe for the cooling, firewater, and drainage systems.

Designed to produce ethylene and PE from nearby supplies of low-cost Marcellus and Utica shale ethane, Shell’s Appalachian petrochemical complex will include an ethane cracker with an average ethylene production capacity of about 1.5 million tonnes/year, three PE units with a combined production of 1.6 million tpy, as well as associated installations for power and steam generation, storage, logistics, cooling water and water treatment, emergency flare, and offices (OGJ Online, June 7, 2016).

Two of the complex’s PE units will manufacture high-density PE grades of pellets, while a third PE unit will produce linear low-density polyethylene pellets, the operator said.

The company also is currently building a 274-m cooling tower, rail and truck-loading facilities, a water treatment plant, an office building, and a laboratory at the site.

Shell said the complex remains on schedule to begin commercial production early in the next decade.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].