LyondellBasell starts construction on $2.4-billion Gulf Coast PO-TBA plant

LyondellBasell Industries officially has broken ground on what it is calling the world’s largest propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol plant at the company’s Houston-area complex in Channelview, Tex. Photo from LyondellBasell Industries.

Start of construction on the project follows the company’s final investment decision reached in July (OGJ Online, July 21, 2017).

Once in operation, the 140-acre PO-TBA plant will produce 1 billion lb/year of PO and 2.2 billion lb/year of TBA, the latter of which will move to an associated 34-acre ethers unit to be built at the company’s Bayport complex near Pasadena, Tex., for conversion into high-octane gasoline components methyl tertiary butyl ether and ethyl tertiary butyl ether.

LyondellBasell plans to sell PO and derivative products from the new Channelview plant to both domestic and global customers, while MTBE and ETBE oxyfuels from the associated Bayport unit will be primarily sold to buyers in Latin America and Asia.

A portion of TBA production, however, will remain in the US market as high-purity isobutylene for use in tires and lubricants, the company said.

Most production from the dual-location project will be exported via the Houston Ship Channel.

The project remains on schedule for startup in 2021, LyondellBasell said.

Broader plans

Part of LyondellBasell’s new $5-billion investment program at the US Gulf Coast, the PO-TBA project follows the operator’s previously completed $2-billion plan launched in 2012 to increase overall US ethylene production by 2 billion lb/year, which included ethylene expansions at its La Porte, Channelview, and Corpus Christi, Tex., sites (OGJ Online, Jan. 19, 2017).

The company also has started construction of a grassroots 1.1 billion-lb/year high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at its La Porte complex that, once completed in 2019, will more than double the site’s annual HDPE capacity to 2 billion lb/year (OGJ Online, May 16, 2017).

Projects under the newly launched investment program align with the company’s strategy of maximizing the competitive advantage associated with the close proximity of its USGC operations both to price-advantaged feedstock from increased North American shale production as well as transportation infrastructure needed to ship product to global markets.