UOP Selected by South Korea's KP Chemical For MX Sorbex Process Unit

Des Plaines,IL - UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced recently that KP Chemical Corp., an affiliate of South Korea's Lotte Group, has selected UOP to supply technology, engineering services, equipment and adsorbent for a new MX Sorbex process unit in Ulsan, South Korea.

UOP's MX Sorbex process technology is used to recover meta-xylene, a material used in producing resins for plastic bottles. Design for the new unit, KP Chemical's second MX Sorbex process unit, is currently in progress with commissioning planned for late 2007.

The new unit will double KP Chemical's current meta-xylene production capacity to help meet the projected 9 percent per year growth in demand for plastic bottle and packaging resin applications worldwide. World meta-xylene production was less than 170,000 metric tons per annum (MTA) in 1995, but increased to approximately 450,000 MTA by 2006.

"Working with UOP has enabled us to fast-track this project," said Mr. N. Y. Lee, vice president of KP Chemical's Base Chemical business unit. "KP Chemical and UOP have a long history of cooperation, and UOP is helping us to meet our objective of bringing this new plant on-line within 13 months of starting the project."

The MX Sorbex process produces meta-xylene with 99.5 percent purity for use in the production of purified isophthalic acid (PIA). PIA is used in a variety of applications including unsaturated polyester resins, surface coatings, and copolyester resins, and its use is growing as a copolyester resin with polyethylene terepthalate (PET) to improve the strength and quality of plastic beverage bottles.

KP Chemical is the largest producer of PIA in Korea. The company is a recognized leader in the export of petrochemical products with around 95 percent of its products, including PIA, going to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, Europe and the U.S.

SOURCE: UOP LLC,