UOP Technology to convert Methanol to Olefins licensed to new Nigerian plant

31-Jan-08

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, has confirmed that Viva Methanol Limited, a subsidiary of Eurochem, has selected the UOP/Hydro MTO process technology and the Total Petrochemicals/UOP Olefin Cracking process technology to produce light olefins - the basic building blocks for plastics - from natural gas-derived methanol at a new Viva Polymers Ltd. facility in Nigeria. The project will be the first commercial-scale installation of the MTO process and Olefin Cracking process technologies. The facility, located within the Lagos Free Trade Zone, Nigeria, will produce olefins from methanol derived from natural gas, an attractive, 'cost-advantaged' feedstock that is plentiful in the region. The new plant is expected to come online in 2012, and will produce 1.3 million tpa of ethylene and propylene for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene. UOP will provide technology license, basic engineering, catalysts, adsorbents, specialty equipment, and technical support. Methanol-to-olefins technology will allow us to use natural gas available in Nigeria and is more cost effective than traditional olefin production from crude oil derived feedstocks. With 10,000 metric tons of methanol produced per day, this will be the largest methanol production facility in the world, and UOP technology will help convert this methanol to high-value olefins to support growing plastics demand. UOP completed the basic engineering design for an earlier version of this project in 2003, but the project will now take advantage of the latest advances in methanol, methanol-to-olefins, and olefin cracking technologies to achieve significantly greater economies of scale and unparalleled yields and efficiencies with this facility. The MTO technology, jointly developed by UOP and Norsk Hydro ASA, converts methanol to ethylene and propylene. The process, based upon proprietary UOP catalysts, is proven to provide high yields with minimal byproducts. It is designed for flexibility of the quantity of each product produced, which allows producers to adjust levels to match shifting market demands. The Olefin Cracking process, jointly developed by UOP and Total Petrochemicals, can be integrated with the MTO process to increase the yield of ethylene and propylene within the plant and minimize hydrocarbon byproducts. Viva Methanol Limited is a Nigerian subsidiary of Eurochem Corporation Pte. Ltd. a privately-owned company based in Singapore.