One of the biggest global PTA producers, BP said it plans to invest over $200 million to upgrade its PTA plants at Cooper River, South Carolina and Geel, Belgium.
“Once completed, the investments will position these assets amongst the most efficient PTA manufacturing facilities in the world,” BP said.
"This allows us to apply our latest proprietary technology and process know-how to existing assets, significantly improving their cost competitiveness and reducing their environmental footprint," said Luis Sierra, President BP Aromatics - Americas, Europe and Middle East.
"It also enables Cooper River and Geel to remain the leading PTA manufacturing complexes in the Americas and Europe respectively," Sierra added.
By applying the latest PTA technology to these facilities, BP expects to greatly improve feedstock and energy efficiency, thus reducing both variable and fixed cost and greenhouse gas emissions.
The BP Cooper River facility is the largest PTA producing plant in the Americas and BP Geel is the largest in Europe.
BP Geel has production capacity of around 1.3 million tons per year of PTA, while BP's Cooper River facility produces nearly 1.3 million tons of PTA annually.
Cooper River's PTA-1 unit, one of two units at the facility, is expected to be upgraded by mid 2016 and will create around 200 construction jobs at its peak and indirectly support many more jobs.
“When the project is completed, the reduction in annual greenhouse gas reductions should equate to eliminating the electricity and heating emissions of about 2,000 typical US households,” BP said.
The Geel upgrade is expected to create around 100 construction jobs at its peak and will also indirectly benefit other businesses in the area.
Geel's PTA-3 unit is expected to be upgraded by the end of 2015 with PTA-2 following in 2016 and annual greenhouse gas reductions should equate to reducing electricity and heating emissions of 1,500 typical Belgium households.
BP is one of the largest producers of PTA globally with annual production capacity of 7.1 million tons annually from seven locations. (AR)
