Belvieu Environmental Fuels (BEF) has signed final agreements and obtained financing commitments to build a 12,500 b/d methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) plant at Mont Belvieu on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Its planned capacity matches the biggest MTBE project in Oil & Gas journal's construction survey (OGJ, Apr. 13, p. 59). Valero Refining Co. is building a 12,500 b/d MTBE plant at Corpus Christi, Tex. Capacities for 14 other MTBE units under construction range from 1,200 to 7,000 b/d and average 3,185 b/d.
BEF construction is to start this fall, with production expected to begin in mid-1994. Air quality permits for construction have been issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Air Quality Control Board.
Financing will be provided through a group of banks.
BEF is a combine of Enterprise Products Co., Houston, and units of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., The Woodlands, Tex., and Sun Co.
Each of the partners owns a one third interest in BEF and will provide one third of the plant's isobutane feedstock. Sun will buy all of the MTBE production for use in its refining operations.
Enterprise will operate the plant, which will be next to its present facilities at Mont Belvieu.
BEF has signed licensing agreements with UOP for the processing technology, including the Oleflex and Ethermax processes.
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