Schwechat Polypropylene Plant, Austria

The new polypropylene plant is located in Schwechat, Austria, at an existing plant complex. During the expansion, the plant transferred ownership from PCD Polymere to Borealis. OMV, which owns a neighbouring plant at the site, is raising the propylene output of its refinery at Schwechat to meet the needs of the new polypropylene plant. The change of ownership came in 1998.

The project was initiated in the second half of 1997, Borealis completed the mechanical construction on 15 Mar 2000 and the plant was began production in May 2000. The value of the project is in the region of $140 million and the production capacity of the plant is 200,000t/yr of polypropylene.

POLYPROPYLENE BORSTAR PROCESS

The polypropylene process technology used at the Austrian plant was developed from the Borstar polyethylene process. The process had been implemented before at Porvoo in Finland and Stenungsund in Sweden, but the Schwechat plant was the first instance of the process technology being used in a polypropylene plant. It uses Borealis' proprietary polypropylene catalyst, a specialised Ziegler-Natta catalyst known as BC1, to produce a range of standard and advanced grades for applications in the areas of film, fibre, thermoforming, and engineering applications and pipe. The modular process consists of a loop and a large gas-phase reactor for homo and random copolymers, with the addition of one or two smaller gas-phase reactors to produce various types of block copolymers. The Schwechat plant will have the base configuration of one loop plus one gas-phase reactor and one rubber gas-phase reactor for heterophasic copolymers. A second rubber reactor can be added at any time when certain copolymers need to be produced.

The combination of loop and gas-phase reactors is claimed by the Danish company to provide several benefits. The loop reactor brings swift start-ups and grade changes, high monomer concentration and, therefore, high catalyst activity, while the gas-phase reactor adds the capability of very soft products and independent operation of the two reactors. In addition, process economics are improved as the unreacted propylene coming out of the loop reactor is consumed in the gas-phase reactor, resulting in a zero recycle rate. The company says the technology has significant cost and environmental benefits as a result of these features. The project at Schwechat entailed replacing two existing slurry lines in order to upgrade the plant.

The principal engineering, procurement and construction contractor was Neste Engineering, which is part of the Finnish energy group Fortum. Modifications to the existing facilities at the site were carried out by a local Austrian company called Tecnon Engineering.

Pre-marketing of the new polypropylene products began in the spring of 1999, as Borealis already has a well-established sales and marketing network in Europe. The new polypropylene products were sourced from a pilot plant in Finland until the Austrian plant could go into production on a commercial scale.

NEW LDPE PLANT PLANNED

Borealis is also considering replacing two old low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plants of 50,000t/yr capacity each with a single new plant. This would have a 200,000-250,000t/yr capacity, and use the Borstar process. If these plans go ahead, then Borealis would have a total 1.7 million tonnes per year polyethylene capacity at Schwechat.

BOREALIS

Borealis is currently the largest producer of polyolefins in Europe and the sixth largest in the world. Borealis is jointly owned by Norway's Statoil, Austria's OMV and the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi. Statoil is a long standing owner and the International Petroleum Investment Company and OMV got involved in 1997, when Neste sold its stake.

Borealis is involved in polyethylene production in Finland, Sweden and through a joint venture in Abu Dhabi. It has been seeking to show that its Borstar process technology is the best possible solution in polyethylene, and may hope for a similar result in polypropylene. Borstar is up against Montell's successful Spheripol process, while Targor is actively promoting its gas-phase route.