Formosa Plastics picks process tech for US PE, PP units in Texas

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Formosa Plastics Corp USA has chosen the process technologies that it will use in the polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plants it is building in Point Comfort, Texas, the company said on Monday.

The technology for the tubular low-density PE (LDPE) plant has been licensed from ExxonMobil, Formosa said. It will have a capacity of 400,000 tonne/year.

It will produce Formosa’s new line of Formolene LDPE resins, said Ken Mounger, vice president and general manager of polyolefins, Formosa.

The dual-purpose PE plant will use UNIPOL technology that is licensed from Univation Technologies, Formosa said. The plant will have a capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year, and it will be able to make both high-density PE (HDPE) and linear-low-density PE (LLDPE).

The units will expand the company’s current line of Formolene HDPE and LLDPE.

The technology for the PP plant was licensed from Japan Polypropylene Corp. It will have a capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year, Formosa said. It will produce Formolene PP, Mounger said.

Formosa did not provide updates as to when the new units will start production.

However, ICIS has reported that the HDPE and LDPE plants should start in the second half of 2018.

Formosa Plastics is also building a 1.2m tonne/year cracker at Point Comfort, as well as a 600,000 tonne/year propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit.

The PDH unit could start up in 2020-2021, according to ICIS.

Packaging like this is often made with low density polyethylene (LDPE). Photo credit by Al Greenwood