A demonstration ethylene dichloride plant scheduled to be built in Brazil will cost about $18 million and is slated to start up by the second half of 2022, a top executive with Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem said Sept. 2.
Fabio Barbosa, Braskem's head of commercial chlor-alkali, disclosed those details via email about the joint venture announced on Aug. 20. He also said construction was slated to begin in 2021.
Braskem has teamed up with US chemistry technology company Chemetry to build the plant, which will use less power and cost less than traditional production methods.
California-based Chemetry will employ its eShuttle EDC process, which involves a metal chloride reaction with ethylene to make EDC, bypassing the need to make chlorine gas to react with ethylene.
EDC is a precursor to polyvinyl chloride, a construction staple used to make pipes, window frames, vinyl siding and other products.
In May 2019 Braskem shut its sole 520,000 mt/year EDC plant in Brazil, as well as an upstream chlor-alkali plant and a salt mining operation, when a government report linked the mining activity to geological damages in Maceio, the capital city of the state of Alagoas.
The company has since been dependent on EDC imports to maintain downstream PVC production. Before the shutdown, Braskem had occasionally imported EDC cargoes to supplement its own output after having expanded PVC capacity.
Braskem aims to restart the shut plants in early November, once infrastructure is in place to ensure delivery of salt imports to feed the chlor-alkali plant and a new permanent substation is online to provide power for that unit. The Maceio salt mining operation has been permanently shut.
The new EDC plant could further reduce the company's occasional EDC import needs as well.
