By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Oct. 17 -- Shell Chemical Co. awarded Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), Dallas, a contract to debottleneck its olefins plant (OP2) in Deer Park, Tex.
Work includes integrated engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services. It will focus on a steam cracker that is limiting production.
The $400 million project is expected to boost Shell�s Deer Park ethylene capacity by 1.1 billion lb/year and is expected to bring Shell�s Deer Park ethylene production to 3.1 billion lb/year from its OP2 and OP3 olefins facilities.
The plant is scheduled to come on stream in 2003. KBR is a business unit of Halliburton Co.
KBR has provided maintenance at the Deer Park plant since 1971. The plant makes lower olefins, such as ethylene and propylene, the building blocks for chemicals used in the making of plastics and antifreeze.
The improvements involve OP2, a lower olefins plant built in 1971 but closed in 1981 due to over capacity. In 1996, a partial refurbishing and startup of the fractionating facilities (cold side) of OP2 was completed. The new expansion will further refurbish those facilities plus recondition all of the furnaces, mechanical, and related equipment.
The project scope also includes various upgrades designed to provide state-of-the-art environmental controls, including selective catalytic reduction technology and low nitrogen oxide burners to reduce emissions from the cracking furnaces.
