Copesul Petrochemical Plant in Brazil Goes Offline for Planned Maintenance

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Copesul, a Braskem (NYSE: BAK) (Camacari, Brazil) petrochemical company located in Triunfo in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state, began a planned maintenance shutdown on March 31, 2008 at Planta 1 that will last 30 days. Along with the turnaround, the plant's petrochemical technology and capacity will be upgraded. Planta 1's ethylene production capacity will increase by 28,000 tons per year, and its propylene production capacity will rise 16,600 tons per year. Copesul's total capacity will increase from 1.22 million tons per year to 1.25 million tons per year.

The company will also replace the sealing system, the compressor and turbine control, and will build a second water-cooling process and a gas burner without steam generation. The increase to Copesul's capacity will be important this year because there will also be planned maintenance shutdowns in two other important petrochemical plants in Brazil: Braskem's Camacari plant (Bahia State) in June, and the Uniao Petrochemical plant (Sao Paulo State) in August. The investment in Copesul is estimated at $196 million.

Copesul also operates the Polo Petroquimico do Sul (Southern Petrochemical Complex) in southern Brazil. The complex produces 34.3% of the ethylene consumed in Brazil. The company also produces propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, xilenes, MTBE, buteno-1, propane among others, totaling 3.2 million of tons per year of petrochemicals products. More than 80% of the total is consumed in Polo Petroquimico do Sul, and the other products are sold in Brazil's internal market and exported to other countries. Planta 1, in Polo Petroquimico do Sul, began operation in 1982 and is responsible for 60% of Copesul's ethylene production. This will be the plant's seventh maintenance shutdown since the plant started processing. The company aims to make adaptations to the facility in order for it to be able to run for six years at a time with no turnarounds.

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