BP receives approval from Chinese government for Zhuhai PTA plant

19-Jun-13

BP and partner Zhuhai Port Co. (Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China) have received final approvals from the Chinese government for the construction of a previously announced, third purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant, at Zhuhai. The Zhuhai 3 plant will have a capacity of 1.25 mln tpa and is expected to start up in late 2014. Zhuhai 3 joins 2 earlier phases of PTA units at the same location, bringing total capacity at the site to more than 2.7 mln tpa. After the start-up of Zhuhai 3, BP’s worldwide net PTA capacity will be 8.25 mln tpa. “This plant will be using BP’s latest proprietary technology and should make BP Zhuhai the most competitive PTA producer in the world," said Nick Elmslie, CEO of BP Global Petrochemicals. "As one of the largest PTA producers in the world, our aim is to invest continuously in the right projects as well as invest to improve the competitiveness of our PTA sites and PTA joint ventures globally,” . Mark Wilson, president/aromatics, Asia and China olefins and derivatives, added, “Zhuhai 3 will be the first to employ BP’s latest generation PTA technology. This should deliver a step change in environmental performance, reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and other waste streams significantly. Compared with other conventional technologies, we expect the new plant to achieve 75% lower water discharge, 65% lower greenhouse gas emissions, and 95% lower solid waste generation, meeting and exceeding strict effluent discharge requirements.”