EC Erdolchemie Ethylene Cracker and Nitric Acid Plant, Germany

EC Erdolchemie GmbH, the owner of the new plant, is a joint venture between Bayer AG and Deutsche BP AG. Each company holds a 50% share in the subsidiary.

WORRINGEN FACILITIES: ETHYLENE CRACKER AND NITRIC ACID PLANT

The ethylene cracker was commissioned from ABB Lummus Global in February 2000. This is designed to increase capacity at the existing plant by 180,000t/yr to one million tonnes per year, an increase of 22%. The plant start up is scheduled for 2002.

This follows on from de-bottlenecking in the ethylene facility which freed up an additional 70,000t/yr and from the addition of an eleventh furnace. The plant's management also discussed de-bottlenecking its polyethylene capacity, although this was not prioritised.

ETHYLENE OXIDE DISTILLATION UNIT

In the second half of 1999, Erdolchemie installed an ethylene oxide distillation unit at its existing ethylene facility. The unit was the subject of a two and a half day shutdown for unrelated technical reasons. The German company is expanding its ethylene oxide capacity from 200,000t/yr to 260,000t/yr.

In addition, EC Erdolchemie has commissioned a new 150,000t/yr ethylene glycol facility. This came on stream in December 1999.

AZEOTROPIC ACID NITRATION PROCESS

In January 2000, EC Erdolchemie GmbH ordered a nitric acid plant in Cologne, which is situated in the Rhineland in Germany. The new plant will be very large, with a capacity of 1,500t/day, equivalent to about 525,000t/yr. The rest of the plant's total annual capacity of 735,000t/yr will be made up of azeotropic acid. Bayer plans to switch to azeotropic acid in place of high-concentration nitric acid in its nitration process. The plant is expected to be commissioned in the last quarter of 2001. It will be a captive supply for the requirements of Bayer's sites at Leverkusen, Dormagen, Brunsbuettel, Uerdingen, and Antwerp.

BASF TECHNOLOGY ANSWERS ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

The new complex will also include a waste-gas treatment plant which uses BASF technology. The technology permits a NOx content of less than 50ppm in the waste gas. This is an important factor in ensuring that the new chemicals complex complies with stringent environmental protection regulations. For the first time, this process will be used to produce azeotropic acid to be utilised for industrial nitriding processes.

EC Erdolchemie also shut down a 50,000t/yr ethanol plant at the site. The reason was that the 40-year-old plant was no longer big enough to compete economically. The other option, of expanding the old plant to a commercially viable size, was ruled out for technical reasons. This freed up about 30,000t/yr of ethylene which the company was able to use for other product areas.

KRUPP UHDE INVOLVEMENT

Krupp Uhde has been awarded a contract which covers the engineering, materials procurement, civil works, erection activities, supervision and plant commissioning. It has also recently won an order for a nitric acid plant in Zeitz, Saxony in eastern Germany.

Krupp Uhde, a subsidiary of the ThyssenKrupp group, is a German process contractor based in Dortmund. It employs around 3,500 people and has sales of approximately Deutsch Mark 1 billion (about $521 million) and claims to have completed more than 2,000 projects across the world. Krupp Uhde is particularly experienced in nitric acid facilities. This was likely to have been an important factor in Krupp Uhde winning the EC Erdolchemie contract.

EC ERDOLCHEMIE PARTNERS

Bayer AG is a long-established German chemicals company with sales in the region of $33 billion. It claims to want to leave the heavy chemicals sector. If so, this would entail pulling out of the EC Erdolchemie subsidiary. The most likely resolution in such a scenario would be if BP Amoco were to buy out its partner in the joint venture. The companies have already confirmed that they are in talks to do this.

Deutsche BP AG is the German subsidiary of BP Amoco, the oil, gas and petrochemicals group. Whereas Bayer has used the produce from the Worringen complex in Cologne to supply its other European plants, BP Amoco markets the surplus output.

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