TAIF Group subsidiary PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim (NKNK) has let a contract to Lummus Technology LLC to deliver technology licensing and engineering services for a series of new units to be built as part of an expansion of NKNK’s existing petrochemical complex at Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan.
As part of the contract, Lummus Technology will license its proprietary technologies and provide basic engineering for four new plants—including what will be Russia’s first ethylene dimerization and olefins conversion units—aimed at enabling NKNK to expand both the range and volume of raw materials used to produce rubber and plastic products, the service provider said.
Specifically, Lummus Technology’s scope of delivery will include the following:
- A unit equipped with EBOne technology that will produce 250,000 tonnes/year of ethylbenzene.
- A unit equipped with Classic SM technology designed to produce 250,000 tpy of styrene monomer.
- Two units—one outfitted with ethylene dimerization (DIMER) technology and the other with olefins conversion (OCT) technology—based on olefins metathesis chemistry that, combined, will produce 150,000 tpy of polymer-grade propylene.
Lummus Technology disclosed neither a value of the contract nor a timeframe for its work on the project.
The latest contract award for expansion of the Nizhnekamsk complex follows NKNK’s more than 45-billion rubles investment during 2019 to upgrade, rehabilitate, modernize, rebuild, and improve environmental performance at the site, according to a July 27, 2020 release by the operator.
NKNK’s existing petrochemical complex produces 616,000 tpy of ethylene and 300,000 tpy of propylene, which the operator uses to manufacture a host of products, including synthetic rubbers, plastics, ethylbenzene, styrene, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, alphaolefins, among others, NKNK said in releases on Oct. 22, 2020 and June 3, 2020.
Major ethylene expansion
Alongside ongoing expansion and modernization works at the complex, NKNK also is progressing with its previously announced grassroots olefins and derivatives complex currently under construction at Nizhnekamsk (OGJ Online, June 2, 2017).
Following NKNK’s February 2020 contract award to OOO Gemont for delivery of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) on the project, construction activities immediately began and have remained ongoing at the site without a single day of stoppages despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, NKNK confirmed in a series of 2020 releases.
Designed to reduce Tatarstan’s export of petrochemical and gas feedstocks as well as increase its production of target high-value products such as rubber and plastics, the new olefins complex—known as EP-600—will include six cracking furnaces, based on technology licensed by Linde Group, designed to crack 1.8 million tpy of naphtha into 600,000 tpy of ethylene and 272,800 tpy of propylene. The EP-600 complex also will produce 88,000 tpy of butadiene and 245,600 tpy of benzene, NKNK said on Sept. 29, 2020.
Alongside other units, the complex also will feature a unit dedicated to producing 89,000 tpy of divinyl, the primary raw material used to produce a range of synthetic rubbers, the operator said.
With installation of major equipment well under way and laying of pipelines to interconnect units most recently scheduled to begin by end-April 2021, the new EP-600 complex remains on schedule for commissioning in 2023, NKNK said on Nov. 23, 2020.
