Chevron Phillips adding new unit at Cedar Bayou plant

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC has let a contract to MHI Compressor International Corp. (MCO-I) to supply compressor train equipment for a new propylene unit to be added at the operator’s Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Tex., in the Houston Ship Channel, 28 miles east of Houston.

MCO-I’s scope of delivery will include an API 612 steam turbine and associated API 617 heat pump compressor, as well as all associated compressor train auxiliary equipment for a new 1-billion lb/yr C₃ splitter designed to convert a refinery-grade mixture of propylene and propane into a high-purity propylene product, the service provider said on Mar. 29.

MCO-I said compressor train manufacturing, assembly, testing, and packaging will be performed by its fabrication sites in Hiroshima, Japan, and Pearland, Tex.

Chevron Phillips has yet to reveal any further details regarding the proposed new unit addition at Cedar Bayou, which currently produces ethylene, high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene, normal alpha olefins, polyalphaolefins, and on-purpose 1-hexene, according to the company’s website.

This latest contract for work at the Baytown plant follows Chevron Phillips’ recently reached settlement with the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Justice to resolve a series of claims alleging the operator violated the US Clean Air Act and associated state air pollution control laws by illegally emitting thousands of tonnes of harmful pollutants via flaring at three of its Texas petrochemical manufacturing plants, including Cedar Bayou (OGJ Online, Mar. 16, 2022).