Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kipic) will use a range of technologies from Honeywell UOP, a leader in petrochemical process technology, for the expansion of its refining and petrochemical complex at Al-Zour.

Honeywell UOP will supply technology licenses, design services, key equipment, and state-of-the-art catalysts and adsorbents to produce clean-burning fuels, paraxylene,  propylene and other petrochemicals.

“When completed, this will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant ever constructed in Kuwait,” said John Gugel, vice president and general manager, Process Technology and Equipment at Honeywell UOP.

“In addition to aromatics and propylene, the Euro-V fuels it will produce will be the cornerstone of Kuwait’s clean fuels initiative.”

The project includes a 50,000 barrels per day (bpd)RFCC complex with ethylene and propylene recovery, and a 24,000 bpd Honeywell UOP Selectfining unit to produce low-sulfur gasoline. Two Honeywell UOP Merox units will be used to treat propane for propylene production, and isobutane to make clean-fuels blending components, including MTBE produced by a UOP Ethermax unit. Also included is a Butamer unit to convert normal butane to isobutane.

The contract also includes a 66,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) CCR Platforming unit with a 74,000 bpd naphtha hydrotreater to make gasoline blend stock, and an LD Parex aromatics complex -- including the Honeywell UOP Sulfolane, Isomarand Tatoray processes –to make 1.4 million metric tons per year of paraxylene, a primary ingredient in plastics.

In addition, an Oleflex propane dehydrogenation unit will produce 660,000 metric tons per year of polymer-grade propylene – another basic component in the production of plastics, synthetic rubber and gasoline additives.

Honeywell UOP is a leading licensor of process technology for the production of aromatics. As of last year, Honeywell UOP licensed more than 100 complexes and more than 700 individual process units for the production of aromatics, including more than 300 CCR Platforming process units, 158 Sulfolane units, 80 Isomar units, 58 Tatoray units, 100Parex units and 60 Oleflex units worldwide.

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company is a new subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) set up by State of Kuwait to manage refinery, petrochemicals and LNG import operations in the Al-Zour complex.– TradeArabia News Service