Shell adds new units at Singapore petrochemical complex
Sept. 16, 2015
Royal Dutch Shell PLC has commissioned two new units designed to more than double output of specialty chemicals at the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC) in Singapore using feedstock supplied by SEPC’s fully integrated 750,000-tonne/year ethylene oxide-monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant on Jurong Island, 1 million-tpy ethylene cracker complex (ECC) on Bukom Island, and 500,000-b/d Pulau Bukom refinery.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC has commissioned two new units designed to more than double output of specialty chemicals at the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex (SEPC) in Singapore using feedstock supplied by SEPC’s fully integrated 750,000-tonne/year ethylene oxide-monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant on Jurong Island, 1 million-tpy ethylene cracker complex (ECC) on Bukom Island, and 500,000-b/d Pulau Bukom refinery.
Located on Jurong Island, the new 140,000-tpy high-purity ethylene oxide (HPEO) purification unit and 140,000-tpy ethoxylates plant are intended to help meet Asia-Pacific’s rising demand for HPEO and alcohol ethoxylates, which are used in a variety of household and industrial products, Shell said.
Feedstock for the HPEO plant comes directly from Shell’s Jurong Island MEG plant, which in turn receives feedstock from the Bukom Island ECC and Pulau Bukom refinery, the company said.
Earlier this year, Shell completed the long-planned upgrade and debottlenecking of the Bukom Island ECC, which increased production capacity at the complex by more than 20% (OGJ Online, Apr. 2, 2015, July 27, 2006).
While the company has yet to disclose a precise figure for the plant’s expanded production capability, a Shell spokesperson told OGJ in April that the upgraded ECC now has a new capacity of more than 1 million tpy.
At the time, the company said increased production from the ECC would be shipped via a subsea pipeline to Jurong Island to support further expansion of intermediates plants, including Shell’s MEG plant as well as third-party installations.
