Al-Waha Petrochemical Co. in Dubai has announced start up at its new complex, which includes a 450000 tpa polypropylene (PP) plant based on LyondellBasell's Spherizone process technology. Al-Waha is located in Al-Jubail Industrial City and was formed in 2006 as a 75:25 JV between Sahara Petrochemicals Co. and LyondellBasell. The site includes a propane dehydrogenation unit, which will be used to derive propylene from propane, as opposed to the petroleum derivative, naphtha. In that process, catalytic dehydration is used convert propane to propylene. The technology will allow Al-Waha to tap into Dubai's sizable natural gas reserves, estimated at 125 billion m3. The Dubai Natural Gas Co.'s Mina Jabal Ali facility has the capacity to extract 20,000 bpd of natural gas liquids, including propane and butane, as well as 2.1 million m3 of dry gas like methane. Although its products will be marketed globally, this joint venture will allow LyondellBasell to supply heterophasic and random copolymers to the Middle East from local assets for the first time. LyondellBasell's Spherizone technology has been licensed globally for the creation of 3 million tons of polypropylene capacity since 2004.
28-Oct-09 
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