Sasol commissions new unit at Louisiana petchem project

Sasol Ltd. has started up the fourth of seven new production units at its Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP), an integrated ethane cracker and downstream derivatives complex under progressive commissioning since 2019 in Westlake, La., near Lake Charles (OGJ Online, Dec. 17, 2019).

The LCCP’s 100,000-tonnes/year ethoxylates (ETO) unit—which is equipped with a combination of technologies from Sasol and HH Technology Corp.—reached beneficial operations (BO) as previously scheduled on Jan. 30, Sasol said.

Startup of the ETO unit follows commissioning of LCCP’s 1.5 million-tpy ethane cracker, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit, and combined ethylene oxide-ethylene glycol unit in 2019 (OGJ Online, Aug. 30, 2019; June 3, 2019; Feb. 14, 2019).

Sasol said it expects to reach BO at LCCP’s Ziegler alcohols unit and Guerbet alcohols unit in the fourth quarter of its 2020 financial year, which runs from April-June 2020.

The operator confirmed an investigation remains under way to determine the cause, extent of damage, and scope and timeline of repairs at LCCP’s low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit, which has been shut down following an explosion and subsequent fire at the unit on Jan. 13 (OGJ Online, Jan. 14, 2020).

The new LDPE unit—which had not yet achieved BO as planned for in December 2019—was in the final stages of commissioning and startup when the incident occurred.

Sasol most recently said it expects to have determined the repair scope and potential duration of the LDPE unit’s ongoing outage by the second half of February (OGJ Online, Jan. 24, 2020).

At the end of December 2019, engineering and procurement activities at LCCP were substantially complete, with construction progress at 98%. Overall project completion was at 99%, and capital expenditure amounted to $12.5 billion, according to the operator.