Sasol builds new plant to
double Octene production
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Sasol today announced
that construction of a 100 000 tons per annum 1-Octene
plant in
Secunda in South Africa was underway. The facility is scheduled
to go into production during the second half of 2007 and will
double Sasol's existing 1-Octene output to 200 000 tons a
year.
Technology group Linde AG was awarded the “detail engineering, procurement
and construction” contract.
“This
new facility comes on the back of growing global demand from
plastics manufacturers for this hydrocarbon molecule that, among
others, gives special performance features such as elasticity,
flexibility, impact resistance and strength to plastic consumer
products,” says Sasol deputy CE Trevor
Munday.
The new plant is the third 1-Octene facility to be constructed by
Linde AG. Two 1-Octene plants with a combined capacity of about
100 000 tons a year are currently operated by Sasol. The new
plant will be the sixth Alpha Olefin Plant that Linde AG will be
erecting within Sasol's Secunda complex, which is situated
approximately 150 km east of Johannesburg.
"Linde and Sasol started their business and technology
cooperation more than 50 years ago. The two companies have
through the years perfected their integration between R&D,
pilot plant, engineering and project execution teams. The
Alpha-Olefins venture, which began 15 years ago, is a unique
success story and this project is only the last element of a long
chain. Linde is very proud to be associated with this great South
African enterprise," says Dr Aldo Belloni, member of the
executive board of Linde AG, and responsible for the business
segment, Gas and Engineering.
Sasol is a leading producer of products such as octene, pentene
and hexene for use as chemical intermediates in the production of
plasticizer alcohols, polymers, polyethylene, fatty acids,
detergent alcohol and lubrication oil additives.
Octene is often used in combination with hexene and pentene to
engineer a host of specific characteristics such as strength,
thinness, elasticity and puncture resistance in products ranging
from dense and durable plastic for wire coatings, automotive
interiors, raincoats and strong garbage bas to low-density,
high-quality shopping bags, cling-wrap film and myriad related
consumer plastics.