Celanese declares acetyl force majeure in Asia

Only days after it officially opened its new its 500,000 mt/yr acetic acid plant in Singapore, Celanese Chemicals (Dallas, TX) has had to declare a force majeure on shipments of acetic acid and vinyl acetate to Asian customers.

According to company spokesperson Andrea Stine, the plant is not producing any product. "We're looking at the situation on a day-by-day basis," she explains. "The plant could be up and running any day."

Syngas problems
Celanese says the problem lies with Singapore Syngas, an outside supplier owned by Messer and Texaco. Singapore Syngas has not been able to produce a reliable, ongoing supply of carbon monoxide, a critical acetic acid raw material. Celanese says it is working with the supplier to restore carbon monoxide production.

The 900 mt/d Singapore Syngas facility is Messer's largest investment outside Germany. It gasifies approximately 600 mt/d of low value refinery feedstocks from the Singapore Refining Co. In addition to carbon monoxide for Celanese, it supplies up to 25 MM scfd of high-purity hydrogen back to the refinery

Singapore Syngas uses Texaco syngas technology. The process partially oxidizes refinery bottoms with oxygen in a refractory-lined vessel at high temperatures and pressures. This yields a hot mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide.

Running the mixture through a cooler generates high-pressure steam for process heating. Scrubbing the cooled syngas with an amine absorber licensed from Linde removes both carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds from the stream. This yields a mixture of clean hydrogen and carbon monoxide,

Force Majeure
Celanese stresses that it does not expect the situation in Singapore to affect its ability to supply customers in other parts of the world. The disruption, however, must be embarrassing for a company that has trumpeted its commitment to Asia.

"Celanese will make every effort to supply its Asian customers with product from its other plant sites in the US and Europe," says company acetyls chain VP Glenn Strow. "Celanese is working with Singapore Syngas to get the carbon monoxide unit in production as soon as possible."

Even so, Celanese limited the force majeure to Asia. It stopped short of putting any North American or European customers on allocation in order to supply Asian customers.

"We're hoping that it's a short-term situation and that it lasts less than one month, so limiting it to a regional rather than a global force majeure," says Stine. "We're looking at our options to supply Asian customers."

Celanese also produces acetic acid at Clear Lake, TX, Pampa, TX, and Edmonton, AB, Canada.

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