Ineos has expanded its ethylidene norbornene (ENB) plant at the Zwigndrecht plant near Antwerp, Belgium, increasing its capacity to 28,000 tonnes/year (tpy) to make it the single largest ENB plant in the world.
The expansion was completed during fourth-quarter 2013, Ineos said in a recent release.
“Ongoing global growth, and demand from new ENB customers, in particular those producing ethylene-propylene-diene rubber, requires new capacity, Ineos Oxide Chief Executive Officer Hans Casier said.
“Debottlenecking the Antwerp plant is a unique step by Ineos that will provide sufficient ENB for the next 2-3 years,” Casier added.
In November 2013, Ineos confirmed the opening of its 1-million-tonne/year, deep-sea ethylene terminal at the Zwigndrecht plant.
The terminal, now fully operational, was designed to balance shortfalls in the company’s large demand by allowing it to import ethylene from around the world instead of relying on supply from other producers along the ARG (formerly Aethylen-Rohrleitungs-Gesellschaft) ethylene pipeline, which links Antwerp to Cologne and the Ruhr industrial areas (OGJ Online, Nov. 8, 2013).