Borealis lets contract for Kallo PDH unit

April 2, 2019
Borealis AG, Vienna, has let a contract to a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont SPA for work related to the operator’s previously announced plan to build a grassroots propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant at its existing production site in Kallo, Belgium.

Robert Brelsford

Downstream Technology Editor

Borealis AG, Vienna, has let a contract to a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont SPA for work related to the operator’s previously announced plan to build a grassroots propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant at its existing production site in Kallo, Belgium (OGJ Online, Feb. 2, 2017).

Tecnimont SPA will deliver engineering, procurement, and construction management, and commissioning services for the PDH plant, which will have an on-purpose, polymer-grade propylene production capacity of 750,000 tonnes/year using Honeywell UOP LLC’s proprietary C3 Oleflex technology, the service provider said.

Tecnimont’s scope of work under the contract also includes EPCM and commissioning services for the proposed Kallo PDH plant’s requisite utilities and interconnections.

Maire Tecnimont valued the contract at about €90 million on a reimbursable basis.

The new plant, which is scheduled for startup in mid-2022, comes as part of Borealis’ ongoing investments into its European assets to meet regional demand.

“In a market environment characterized by rising European demand for propylene, our [proposed] Kallo PDH plant will set new standards in quality, competitiveness, and sustainability: with its associated energy cogeneration unit, this plant will be one of the most energy efficient olefins plants worldwide to produce on purpose propylene,” said Alfred Stern, Borealis’ chief executive officer.

Related contracts

Borealis previously awarded contracts to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Dallas, to complete feasibility studies for the Kallo PDH plant as well as for the proposed expansion of Borealis’ polypropylene (PP) plants in Belgium (OGJ Online, Feb. 13, 2018; Jan. 4, 2018).

The most recent feasibility study was to assess a series of capacity increases through projects designed to debottleneck Borealis’ existing Belgian PP units to help further strengthen the company’s position as a leading PP provider in Europe.

As initially planned, the potential PP capacity increase would take full advantage of additional propylene supply from a then-proposed 740,000-tpy PDH unit at Kallo.

Details regarding which Belgian PP units would be debottlenecked or the volume of additional capacity that would come online as a result of the proposed projects have yet to be released.