Essar Awards $45 Million Licensing Deal to Lummus for Proposed Petrochemicals Complex

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Essar Gujarat Petrochemicals Limited (Jamnagar, Gujarat) recently signed a $45 million licensing deal with Lummus Technology, the process technology arm of Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE:CBI) (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), to license the latter's technology and engineering expertise at Essar's proposed grassroot petrochemicals complex in Vadinar, Gujarat.

Essar will acquire CB&I's process technologies related to butadiene, a two-stage extractive distillation process; ethylene; ethylbenzene/styrene monomer; an alkylation and distillation process; methyl tertiary butyl ether/ethyl tertiary butyl ether/butene-1; and cumene/phenol, a technology developed by Polimeri Europa SA (Milan, Italy) and marketed by Lummus.

The petrochemical complex will house a mixed-feed ethylene plant with a capacity of 1.3 million tons per year. The plant will use Lummus' Short Residence Time (SRT VI) Pyrolysis Furnace Module for the production and selective extraction of ethylene. Lummus will also license the use of its technology for downstream units in the petrochemicals complex to manufacture butadiene, butene-1, ether, styrene and phenol.

Essar operates a 10.5 million-ton-per-year refinery in Vadinar and plans to ramp up production at the unit to 34 million tons per year by 2010 with an investment of $6 billion. The refinery began commercial operation in May 2008. The refinery's yield comprises 48% middle distillates and 26% each of heavy and light distillates. In April, the firm announced plans to set up a petrochemicals unit with a naphtha and off-gas cracker at a refinery complex to foray into the production of naphtha and to explore downstream opportunities. The company expects to be able to produce nearly 3 million tons per year of naphtha by 2010 at the Vadinar refinery after an expansion.

Lummus, which was acquired by CB&I last year, and its partners are known to have more than 1,500 current and pending patents and 70 proprietary licensed technologies in engineering, procurement and construction in the natural resource and energy sectors. These cover a gamut of processes, including the conversion of ethylene and olefins, the processing and treating of natural gas, and refining technologies like alkylation, catalytic cracking, delayed coking, hydro-processing and the upgrading of residuum.

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