Dow Chemical Co. and Shell International Chemicals Ltd. have proposed a joint venture to build and operate a world-scale petrochemical plant in northwestern Australia.
They submitted the plan to the Western Australian government in response to a request for companies to register interest in developing an integrated petrochemical project in the Pilbara region, 1,200 km north of Perth. Dow and Shell suggested a project based on a 50-50 owned 450,000 metric ton/year ethylene cracker, to come on stream in 2002-03 and use ethane from the existing Northwest Shelf natural gas project as feedstock.
The cracker would provide feedstock for a 400,000 ton/year monoethylene glycol plant Shell plans, while Dow intends to use locally produced solar salt and ethylene from the new cracker to produce caustic soda and up to 690,000 tons/year of ethylene dichloride.
Monoethylene glycol and ethylene dichloride are used as raw materials for chemical manufacturing, while caustic soda would be used to produce alumina from locally mined bauxite. A Shell official said the plants' output would be sold mainly in existing markets in Asia. The companies have not disclosed anticipated costs for the project.
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