Hanwha Total Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. (HTPCL), a 50-50 joint venture of Hanwha Group, Seoul, and Total SA, Paris, will invest $450 million to expand ethylene capacity of its Daesan refining and petrochemicals integrated complex in Chungnam Province, South Korea, about 145 km from Seoul.
Designed to expand ethylene production capacity by 30% to 1.4 million tonnes/year, the expansion also will increase the complex’s feedstock flexibility, enabling it to process competitively priced and abundantly available propane supplies resulting from rising US shale gas production, Total said.
Alongside meeting local South Korean demand, increased ethylene production from the complex also will supply China’s nearby and rapidly growing market, which continues to import a large portion of its ethylene requirements.
Part of Total’s strategy to boost investments in developing petrochemicals based on competitive feedstock and targeting high-growth markets, the ethylene expansion project at Daesan is scheduled to be completed in mid-2019, the French operator said.
The newly proposed ethylene expansion follows a nearly $2-billion upgrade of the complex completed in 2014, which added a second aromatics plant, a condensate fractionation unit, and an aromatics unit (OGJ Online, July 27, 2012).
Total and Hanwha formed HTPCL following Hanwha’s 2015 purchase of Samsung Group’s petrochemicals business, which included Samsung’s 50% interest in the Daesan complex under the former Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. joint venture, according to an Apr. 30, 2015, release from HTPCL.
In addition to its current output of 1 million tpy of ethylene, 1.77 million tpy of paraxylene, and 1.05 million tpy of styrene monomer, the Daesan complex produces polypropylene, polyethylene, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, as well as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG, fuel oil, and solvents.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
