Ineos taps Texas for USGC EO-EOD plant

Ineos AG, Rolle, Switzerland, will site subsidiary Ineos Oxide’s previously announced project for a proposed US Gulf Coast ethylene oxide (EO) and ethylene oxide derivatives (EOD) plant in Texas (OGJ Online, Mar. 25, 2019).

The new 1.2 billion-lb (520,000-tonne/year) EO unit and associated downstream EOD plant will be built at Ineos’s Chocolate Bayou petrochemicals manufacturing site in Alvin, Tex., south of Houston on the Gulf of Mexico coast, Ineos said.

Selection of Chocolate Bayou to host the new EO-EOD plant will reinforce on-site integration to benefit two existing olefins crackers, two polypropylene units, and two cogeneration installations at the site operated by Ineos Olefins & Polymers USA, according to the operator.

Ineos said it also expects availability of additional land close to the new unit will enable interested third parties to colocate and consume EO by pipeline.

Part of Ineos’s plan to address a fast-growing EO merchant market as well as the operator’s own requirements, the new plant is slated to be operational sometime in 2023.

Alongside the site’s proposed EO-EOD plant, Ineos subsidiary Ineos Oligomers also is currently building a new linear alpha olefin (LAO) unit and associated downstream polyalphaolefin (PAO) unit at Chocolate Bayou, both of which are scheduled for startup by yearend 2019 (OGJ Online, Apr. 6, 2018).