Bayport Acrylic Acid Plant, TX, USA

The project is a new acrylic acid plant located near Pasadena in Texas and owned by American Acryl. The site is alongside the Houston ship channel, which is a major petrochemical industry centre. The company chose the Bayport Industrial Complex because of its feedstock supply via pipeline, its proximity to a major seaport terminal for export, its existing chemical industry infrastructure and the available skilled labour force.

The new plant was announced as a definite project in 1998, and civil work on the project began in 1999, but it wasn't until the state issued air permits in July 2000 that the project started officially. The facilities will both be due for completion in the second quarter of 2002. The cost of the new acrylic acid plant is estimated at $150 million. Atofina Chemicals, Inc.'s butyl acrylate plant is expected to cost $50 million.

ACRYLIC ACID AND BUTYL ACRYLATE PLANTS

The new Bayport facility will include a 120,000t/yr acrylic acid plant and a butyl acrylate plant separately owned and managed by Atofina. The acrylic acid plant uses Nippon Shokubai's proprietary processing technology. The acrylic acid plant will supply feedstock to the French company's butyl acetate plant. In this way, Atofina gets a secure and relatively cheap source of supply and the joint-venture plant gets a guaranteed customer.

When in operation, the acrylic acid and butyl acrylate facilities will create a total of approximately 50 permanent jobs and numerous temporary contract jobs. The project will provide 500-600 local construction jobs.

POLLUTION CREDITS

The economic benefits of the new facility outweigh the negative impact on the environment. Texas has a reputation for being prepared to permit pollution if it will bring economic benefits. Thus, American Acryl is allowed to buy pollution credits, which allow companies to offset their emissions with credits. This is a policy which arouses some controversy in parts of the USA. The Houston site has received particular criticism as it is already the centre of chemical industry development and, therefore, has existing smog and pollution problems.

LEAD CONTRACTORS

Engineering, procurement and contracting (EPC) will be carried out by the French Technip and the US Parsons in a consortium. The award of the EPC contract follows the previous award of the front-end engineering and design work to the Parsons/Technip team. Both the companies have extensive experience of chemical plants around the world.

AMERICAN ACRYL

American Acryl was first formed in 1997. It is a 50/50 joint venture, between NA Industries, Inc. and Atofina Chemicals, Inc. who are the North American subsidiaries of Nippon Shokubai and Total Fina Elf S.A. respectively.