Shell Chemicals Ltd., a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, has completed upgrades to improve efficiency and boost production volumes at its Shell Deutschland Oil GMBH–operated petrochemicals plant at Wesseling, Germany, which together with the Godorf refinery near Cologne-Godorf, comprise Shell’s 325,000-b/d integrated Rheinland refinery, Germany’s largest (OGJ Online, Jan. 11, 2012; Aug. 4, 2009).
The revamp, which involved modifications to furnaces, compressors, column systems, tubes, and pipes at the complex’s 2A naphtha steam cracker, already has lowered stack temperatures and reduced fuel consumption at the plant, Shell said.
The project also has enabled the upgraded 2A steam cracker to increase production of ethylene, propylene, C4, and pygas by 15%, the company said.
The decision to increase throughput and improve feedstock flexibility at the 2A cracker came in late 2011, following the shuttering of the Wesseling plant’s 2B cracker as part of the company’s strategy to strengthen both its refining-chemicals integration and feedstock position of core manufacturing locations across the world, according to Graham van’t Hoff, executive vice-president for Shell Chemicals.
During 2014, Wesseling’s 2A steam cracker, which receives advantaged feedstock and absorbs byproduct streams from the nearby Godorf site, had an ethylene production capacity of 272,000 tonnes/year, Shell recently told investors.
