BASF has selected Freeport, Texas as the potential site in its plans to build a world-scale methane to propylene complex on the US Gulf Coast.
BASF in a press release said, it will use Air Liquide’s proprietary Lurgi MegaMethanol and Methanol-to-Propylene (MTP) technologies and who will also provide basic engineering services for this complex.
The plant is planned to have an annual production capacity of approximately 475,000 metric tons of propylene.
This project would be BASF’s largest single-plant investment to date and is subject to final approval in 2016 by the BASF Board of Executive Directors.
The Freeport site was set up in 1958 as the first BASF manufacturing facility outside Europe and has more than 800 full-time employees.
According to the German company, the Freeport site is one of two BASF Verbund sites in North America and uses propylene in its manufacturing processes.
The on-purpose production of propylene to supply the company’s North American operations would allow BASF to take advantage of low gas prices resulting from US shale gas production.
“The investment would further strengthen BASF’s backward integration into propylene and grow its propylene-based downstream activities, leading to a stronger market position in North America,” it added.
Propylene is one of the most important basic chemicals in the petrochemical industry and is used in the production of a wide range of higher-value chemicals.
These chemicals are used to manufacture products such as coatings, detergents, and superabsorbent polymers for baby diapers.
BASF had sales of over €74 billion in 2014 and around 113,000 employees as of the end of the year and its shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, London and Zurich.
