Basell plans PE plant based on Spherilene S Technology in Germany

01-Aug-06

Basell plans to build a new Spherilene S polyethylene plant at its Wesseling industrial site near Cologne, Germany. Start up is plant to be based on Basell's new Spherilene S single reactor gas phase design is estimated in 2008. Currently, Basell operates an 80 KT Lupotech G polyethylene plant at Wesseling which is to be converted into a new Spherilene S plant based on latest generation technology including the installation of a new reactor system. The new Spherilene S process have true swing capability between HDPE and LLDPE since both products can be produced from the same Ziegler catalyst family and it offers advantages of low investment and operating costs, high on-stream factors and monomer efficiency. Basell's new Spherilene technology can be designed in a single reactor configuration (Spherilene S) or with two gas phase reactors in series (Spherilene C) for the production of bimodal grades. Spherilene S technology is designed to produce products with narrow and medium molecular weight distribution. Both butene and hexene modified LLDPE can be produced as well as HDPE.