Ineos Oligomers will further debottleneck its polyalphaolefin plant in LaPorte, Texas, by the end of 2015 and will install a production train of up to 80,000 metric tons per year at an unspecified location by 2018, the company announced last week.
These projects are in addition to other investments announced in 2013, including construction of a linear alpha olefin plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the opening of which has been delayed until the third quarter of 2017.
The League City, Texas-based company said it also revamped its polyisobutene plant in Lavera, France.
Officials said the company recently completed one of the projects announced in mid-2013, a debottlenecking of its Canadian LAO plant.
The planned 10 percent debottleneck of the Joffre, Alberta, site was completed at the end of fourth quarter 2014, and coincided with the LAO units recent turnaround, Ineos Oligomers Operations Director Karel Brabant stated in a news release. Additional debottleneck opportunities still exist at this unit as it was originally designed to be expandable by 50 percent.”
The company said it also completed early phase engineering of the 350,000 t/y LAO unit it is developing along the Gulf of Mexico. Officials said the scheduled opening date has slipped from the original target of late 2016 but that Ineos remains committed to it. We continue to believe our market and technology focus on polyethylene comonomers and PAO, combined with our access to U.S. Gulf Coast ethylene economics, make this an attractive opportunity, Ineos Oligomers Business Director Joe Walton said.
Walton noted that the company debottlenecked its LaPorte PAO plant in 2013 and said it will complete another such project by the end of 2015. Furthermore, we have a project engineered for a 15 percent debottleneck at [another PAO plant in Feluy, Belgium] that can be utilized if necessary. These incremental capacity additions will allow us to support PAO growth until we add an additional new world scale train in 2018, potentially up to 80,000 metric tons per year of additional capacity.
Walton said Ineos LAO expansion capacity will also provide significant additional feedstock supply to support the anticipated long-term growth of the companys PAO business.
LAOs are the main building block for polyalphaolefins, which are used to make motor oils and other high-performance lubricants. Other common end uses of LAOs include drilling fluids and household plastics from polyethylene.
Our low-viscosity PAO business continues to benefit from lubricant reformulation activity to both attain better fuel economy and to lower carbon emissions.
Ineos Oligomers claims to be the worlds largest merchant supplier of low-viscosity PAO, and its investment plans will ensure the company maintains that position, Walton asserted.
The company operates an 80,000 t/y polyisobutene plant in Lavera, France. Over the past three years, Ineos Oligimers spent 10 million (U.S. $10.7 million) upgrading the PIB unit to align with customers evolving supply needs. In a news release, the company said the upgrades include improved security of feedstock supply, increased availability of higher molecular weight grades, more consistent product viscosity through process design and technology improvements, and a 50-percent increase in drumming capacity through installation of a new drumming line.
The PIB unit can now import raw material from off-site sources, reducing dependency on the co-located steam cracker. Product tank farm improvements include new in-line filtration technology and the construction of several new tanks.
The company sells 20 grades of PIB directly and through a distributor network.