Hanwha Total commissions Daesan ethylene capacity expansion

Hanwha Total Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. (HTPCL), a 50-50 joint venture of Hanwha Group, Seoul, and Total SA, Paris, has completed a $450-million investment project to expand ethylene capacity of its Daesan refining and petrochemicals integrated complex in Chungnam Province, South Korea, about 145 km from Seoul (OGJ Online, Apr. 12, 2017).

The complex has increased ethylene production capacity at the site by 30% to 1.4 million tonnes/year, Total said.

Launched in April 2017, the now-completed ethylene expansion is the first of three projects under way at the complex, the other two of which include a $300-million project to expand polyethylene production by 50% to 1.1 million tpy by yearend, as well as a $500-million project to increase polypropylene production capacity by nearly 60% to 1.1 million tpy by 2021 (OGJ Online, Jan. 8, 2019; Dec. 3, 2018).

Designed to take advantage of abundant, cost-advantaged propane feedstock from the US shale gas revolution, the three projects will equip HTPCL’s Daesan complex to capture margins across the ethylene-polyethylene and propylene-polypropylene value chains, with the additional production capacity helping to meet rapidly growing demand in Asia-Pacific, Total said.

“These investments and today’s successful start-up of the first project reflect our strategy of meeting growing global demand for petrochemicals by channeling our investments into our world-class complexes and leveraging cost-advantaged feedstock,” Bernard Pinatel, Total’s president of refining and chemicals, said.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].