Hanwha Total Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. (HTPCL), a 50-50 joint venture of Hanwha Group, Seoul, and Total SE, Paris, has completed projects to further expand ethylene and polypropylene (PP) production capacities at its Daesan refining and petrochemicals integrated complex in Chungnam Province, South Korea, about 145 km from Seoul.
Alongside startup of a fourth propane furnace designed to increase the complex’s ethylene production capacity by 10% to 1.5 million tonnes/year, HTPCL also has commissioned a new PP unit that expands overall PP production capacity at the site by 60% to 1.1 million tpy, Total said.
With a design capacity of 400,000 tpy, the new PP line enables the Daesan complex to supply both the Korean market and export markets—particularly China—with additional PP for manufacturing of durable goods used in specialty applications such as underfloor heating pipes and automotive parts that will help reduce the weight of vehicles, according to Total.
Completed on time and on budget, HTPCL’s PP and ethylene projects wrap up a total $1.3 billion in investments by the JV since 2017 at the Daesan complex on projects aimed at expanding the site’s petrochemicals production capacities based on competitively priced and abundantly available propane feedstock resulting from rising US shale gas production (OGJ Online, Jan. 8, 2019; Dec. 3, 2018; Apr. 12, 2017).
In second-half 2019, HTPCL completed a $450-million project that increased ethylene production at Daesan by 30% to 1.4 million tpy (OGJ Online, Sept. 17, 2019).
