CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) announced that it has been awarded an ethylene technology contract by Lianyungang Petrochemical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical Co., Ltd. CB&I’s scope of work includes a process design package, heater engineering and technology license for two ethylene plants with a capacity of 1,250,000 metric ton per year (m.t./yr) each at Lianyungang’s petrochemical facility in Jiangsu Province, China. This design will utilize CB&I’s market-leading, low-cost ethane cracker flowsheet which reduces investment costs by eliminating plant equipment.
Once complete, these will be China’s first ethylene plants to crack 100% ethane feed, signifying a new wave of ethylene projects fed by shale gas ethane sourced from the U.S. Currently, all large ethylene plants in China crack mixed feeds or liquid feeds.
“CB&I is already a leading technology provider for the Chinese petrochemical industry,” said Daniel M. McCarthy, CB&I’s Executive Vice President of Technology. “Being the first company to license a unit in this new wave of ethane-only cracker projects in China not only enhances our business in the region, it puts CB&I in a better position to win future awards in the market.”