UOP Selected By Poland's PKN For New Aromatics Project
Complex To Include Three UOP Processes To Produce Para-xylene Used In Polyester And PET Production
Des Plaines, IL - UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced today that Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN SA (PKN), the largest oil company in Central Europe, has selected UOP to supply technology, basic engineering services and equipment for an aromatics project to be installed at PKN's Plock Refinery in Poland.
The new project is planned to start up in 2008 and the design work will be done by UOP in Des Plaines, Ill. in conjunction with UOP Limited, UOP's wholly owned subsidiary based near London, England.
Aromatics are one of the most important petrochemical building blocks for the production of plastics and synthetic fibers such as polyester. The new plant will produce 400 kMTA (thousand metric tons per annum) of para-xylene, which is a key ingredient in the production of polyester for fabric and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) chips for carbonated soft drink and water bottles.
UOP will design a Parex(TM) process unit to extract pure para-xylene, an Isomar(TM) process unit to convert other xylenes to para-xylene, and a Tatoray(TM) process unit to convert toluene and heavy aromatics to xylenes.
The Parex process unit, due to its very efficient operation, will be replacing an existing para-xylene crystallizer. The Tatoray process unit will be replacing a Detol unit in order to maximize the production of xylenes from the available feedstock. These units will be the first installation of their kind in Poland.
UOP has been working with PKN and its predecessor companies, Petrochemia Plock and MZRiP since 1974 when UOP licensed a hydrofluoric acid (HF) alkylation process unit, which is used in the production of high-octane gasoline.
Since that time, UOP has licensed two CCR Platforming process units, a Penex process / DIH (deisohexanizer) unit, a Unicracking process unit, and an FCC (Fluid Catalytic Cracking) process unit at the Plock Refinery.
PKN ORLEN, headquartered in Plock, Poland is the largest oil company in Central Europe and comprises 80 commercial companies. It owns and operates three refineries located in Plock, Trzebinia and Jedlicze, Poland. PKN ORLEN also owns and operates the largest network of petrol stations in Poland.
SOURCE: Honeywell International