Reactor arrives at LyondellBasell’s first commercial hyperzone polyethylene plant
LyondellBasell, one of the world's largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies, announced the arrival of its Hyperzone polyethylene (PE) plant’s multi-zone circulating reactor, a significant milestone in the project’s construction phase. The company broke ground on the plant in May, and start up is planned for 2019. Hyperzone technology will address modern solutions in plastics, and the plant is part of the company’s multi-billion dollar series of investments along the US Gulf Coast to continue expanding and enhancing service globally.
The multi-zone reactor is key for the production of the company’s new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology, a polyolefin process which enables manufacturing of a broad spectrum of high density polyethylene (HDPE) products in one single plant whereas previous technologies require multiple plants. The reactor, about five-stories-tall, was shipped from South Korea and travelled about 11,000 mi before arriving to the company’s La Porte Complex dock in October. LyondellBasell is a global leader in the development and licensing of polyolefin processes.
The company plans to make the Hyperzone process technology available for licensing in the future. The technology, which will produce resins that provide light-weighting capabilities for customers, took years to advance to commercialization and was a product of LyondellBasell’s global research and development teams in Ferrara, Italy; Frankfurt, Germany; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Houston, Texas.
The Hyperzone plant will produce 1.1 B pounds-per-year of high density polyethylene. Hyperzone PE will create up to 1,000 jobs at the peak of construction and 75 permanent positions. As modeled by Impact Data Source, the approximately $700 MM project is expected to generate more than $67 MM in tax benefits for the state, county, school district, community college and other local taxing districts over a 10-yr period following construction.
In addition to the Hyperzone PE plant, the company’s US Gulf Coast investments include recently completed work on ethylene expansion projects at its La Porte, Channelview and Corpus Christi sites in Texas. Additionally, LyondellBasell will build the world’s largest propylene oxide (PO) and tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) plant. The PO/TBA project is estimated to cost approximately $2.4 B, representing the single-largest capital investment in the company’s history. At the peak of construction, the project is expected to create up to 2,500 jobs and approximately 160 permanent positions when operational. Once in operation, the plant will produce an anticipated 470,000 mt of PO and 1 MMmt of TBA annually.
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