The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Energy => Topic started by: Elderberry on April 18, 2019, 12:06:57 pm
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Houston Chronicle by Marissa Luck April 17, 2019
At LyondellBasell’s Bayport plant, dozens of construction workers in neon vests are dwarfed by bulldozers moving mounds of dirt. A crane rises several stories into gray blue sky. Steam plumes puff from towers behind the construction site as a maze of silver, yellow and blue pipes form the veins of a petrochemical plant in the middle of a massive growth spurt.
The Houston petrochemical company is pumping new life into the heart of the Bayport plant - which just marked its 50th anniversary this week - with a multimillion dollar expansion, part of a broader $2.4 billion project that is LyondellBasell’s biggest capital undertaking to date.
Construction crews working for the S&B Construction are completing ground preparations and foundation work before hauling in more cranes to begin above ground construction on a new 34-acre unit that produce fuel additives, said Darren Dickens, who oversees maintenance at the plant. That site is connected via pipeline to the second half of the project, a 140-acre plant under construction at LyondellBasell’s Channelview complex that will produce chemicals used in carpeting, cushions, coating, paints and packaging. Fluor is the engineer on the project.
Once the project is complete in 2021, the Bayport-Channelview project will be the largest propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol plant in the world, according to the company. Propylene oxide is used in the manufacture of bedding, furniture, carpeting, coatings, building materials and adhesives, while tertiary butyl alcohol will be converted to two high-octane fuel additives that can be blended into gasoline to reduce emissions.
More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/LyondellBasell-progresses-on-2-4-billion-13774550.php (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/LyondellBasell-progresses-on-2-4-billion-13774550.php)
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Glad to see Lyondell expanding.